Sharad Pawar leaves after a review meeting on Covid in Pune on Saturday. (Express photo: Ashish Kale)
On Thursday, the head of the PCN, Sharad Pawar, paid a surprise visit to the Municipal Corporation of Pimpri Chinchwad, the first in 18 years, and reviewed the situation of the epidemic. The next day, he met with officials from the Pune Municipal Corporation.
While cases have risen in Maharashtra, which accounts for more than a fifth of all coronavirus cases in the country, the situation in Pune is blamed directly on the PNC. The territory of the Pawar family, Baramati, is part of the Pune district. Furthermore, Pawar’s nephew and senior deputy minister Ajit Pawar directly manages Pune as its watchdog minister. Ajit Pawar, a frequent visitor to Pune, has been leading coronavirus efforts in the district and was reportedly instrumental in the transfers of key health officials.
As on Saturday, Pune had reported more than 1.94 lakh of coronavirus cases, 57,000 of them active; both figures put it ahead of the next two cities on the highest list, Delhi and Mumbai. Mumbai has less than half of its active cases and Delhi around a third.
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