Mumbai: Bombay High Court made an interesting observation on recently-appointed Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde’s village.
“His village has no road, no bridge but has two helipads,” the bench headed by Justice PB Varale said while hearing a suo motu petition concerning schoolgirls of Satara district.
Shinde, who led a revolt of Shiv Sena MLAs to topple the Uddhav Thackeray-headed coalition government, hails from Satara.
“Even if the village has two helipads, we don’t have an objection.. but there should be an endeavour to provide good roads so that the children can go to school. We want to see roads for children so that they can finish their education and help society,” Justice Varale said.
The petition was taken up suo motu after a news article in India Today’s web portal a few months ago. The news article highlighted the hardship that children of Khirkhindi village in Satara district, especially girls, have to go through to attend school every day.
Shinde’s son Shrikant, who is a Member of Parliament, donated a boat for the children to cross Koyna dam backwaters after the issue came to light.
Shinde’s helipad cropped up as amicus curie Sanjeev Kadam told the court that the scenario should change for the children as they hail from the same area as the new chief minister.
“The chief minister knows the area. His own village is also affected by the rising water level of the Koyna dam,” Kadam said.
The bench asked Shinde’s lawyer why he has not made more positive efforts in this changed scenario.
“We will be happy if something is done permanently for these boys and girls in terms of getting education, if possible at their doorstep, if not, there should be residential hostels etc,” Justice Varale added.
