Pramod Navalkar passes away

MUMBAI: Senior Shiv Sena leader and former minister Pramod Navalkar, who passed away on Tuesday following a heart attack, was Mumbai’s moral policeman. Be it a wardrobe malfunction or a film that portrayed women in poor taste, Mr Navalkar was at the forefront in fighting social ills and thus, earning for himself the sobriquet of moral policeman.

A member of the Cabinet in the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance government during 1995-99, Mr Navalkar is described as the most famous cultural affairs minister in Maharashtra’s history.

The founding member of the Sena, Mr Navalkar was a fierce Mumbai lover and through his famous Marathi newspaper column Bhatkyachi Bhramanti (journey of a tramp) often lamented the deterioration of India’s financial capital. The column ran for over 50 years, a record in journalism.

Mr Navalkar was also instrumental in setting up the Nana Nani Park along Girgaum chowpatty. He spearheaded a move to give police stations a new look. “I thought of having police stations cleaned and getting them to break away from the usual look.

People are scared of going to police stations since they are intimidating,” he once said. A close friend of former CM Manohar Joshi, Mr Navalkar was Leader of the Opposition in Legislative Council in 1991-92.