It is now Maharashtra governor K. Sankaranarayanan’s turn to bat for Mumbai. At an informal Meet-the-Press at the Raj Bhavan here on Thursday, he said anybody could live in Mumbai and few places were like that. He was referring to the comfort levels in the city which attracted migrants in droves despite all its problems.
“There is no other city on par with Mumbai,” he said, underlining its uniqueness. He admitted that there were issues of development and infrastructure and people were suffering. “But we have to have more facilities and improve existing things,” he said, hinting that migration could not really be curbed.
With reference to the recent demand for dissolution of the statutory development boards, Mr. Sankaranarayanan said there was no controversy and he would take all parties into confidence. He favoured an equitable development in the State where all regions including the backward Marathwada and Vidarbha would get an equal share. The discrimination had to be ended. He stressed that these development boards were necessary and opinions were not decisions. There should be constructive opinions.
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The Governor said that despite the electronic media invasion, print media still held its ground and people preferred to read a newspaper with their morning cup of tea.
Mr. Sankaranarayanan’s statement on Mumbai came soon after singer Asha Bhosale’s opinion that Mumbai was for all. She spoke this at a programme attended by Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray. Surprisingly Mr. Thackeray chose to keep mum on her statement.