Need people who hold govt accountable: Nitin Gadkari
Gadkari was addressing the audience at the late Prakash Deshpande Smruti Kushal Sanghatak Puraskar held in Nagpur on Sunday.
Talking about a recipient of the award, Gadkari said, 'Ravi Fadnavis and I were never on the same page politically. He challenged the education department time and again, took them to court, overturned decisions. And I say this sincerely, we need people like him. People who hold governments accountable. Court cases and verdicts often bring about changes that ministers cannot.'
Gadkari also spoke about the media's role in public infrastructure.
He remembered how protests against projects like the Mumbai–Pune Expressway and the Bandra–Worli Sea Link gained traction. 'Medha Patkar's campaign drew national attention. The English media criticised us too. I took some of them to the site, and we saw how the sea face near Worli had practically become a gutter. That changed minds.'
He credited Prakash Deshpande once again for helping bridge the divide between government and media. 'Even Kumar Ketkar, who was often critical of us, met Prakash and changed his perspective. He realised these flyovers could actually transform Mumbai's traffic.'
The awards were given as 'kushal sanghatak' to Balawant Bhoyar and Ravindra Fadnavis by Vidarbha Gaurav Pratishthan in Nagpur.
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