Agri Min’s copter trip to Maha kicks up row

After Maharashtra Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse, Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh’s helicopter trip in the drought-hit state kicked up a storm with a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) worker alleging that 10,000 litres of water was used to prepare a makeshift helipad.

The matter came to light after Dayanand Nene, a BJP worker and president of the Alert Citizens Forum of India, wrote to Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis urging him to put a stop to such “colossal wastage” of water during VIP helicopter visits at a time when the state in facing acute scarcity of water.

In an e-mail to Fadnavis, he said the helipad was prepared on a ground using gallons of water brought by tanker for the minister’s chopper to land when Singh came to attend a programme of Gram Kisan Abhiyan in Bhiwandi on Monday.

Nene also attached photographs of the tanker spraying water on the ground, the welcome arch, the minister being received and the hoarding of the programme, and also the chopper carrying the minister making a landing.