In a scathing editorial, the Shiv Sena mouthpiece, Saamana, criticized Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, suggesting that his touted Nagpur development model was exposed as inadequate after just four hours of heavy rain.
The editorial stated, “Devendra Fadnavis calls himself the ‘suputra’ (son) of Nagpur. In barely four hours of rain, Nagpur was drowned. His lies of development were exposed. The mask came off the face of self-appointed contractors of Nagpur… Will he and his parivaar now do some self-introspection.”
Continuous rainfall led to flooding in several low-lying areas in Nagpur, forcing the government to evacuate around 400 residents to safety.
The editorial further pointed out that while flood-affected citizens of Nagpur were seeking help, Fadnavis was busy with Ganesh darshan and closed-door meetings in Mumbai. Only after the damage was done did he return to his hometown to meet flood-affected citizens, assess the affected areas, and promise compensation. However, the Saamana editorial claimed that the flooding exposed the inadequacies in the city’s development plan, highlighting the absence of preparedness for natural disasters.
“Actually, Nagpur has no history of such floods but in the last 30 years, the city has faced an emergency situation. Saturday was no different. The flood exposed the fact that when the development plan of the city was being created, such natural disasters were not taken into account,” it said.