Shinde blames wind; ignored, says Opposition

The opposition parties have slammed the state government over the incident of the Chhatrapati Shivaji statue collapse, alleging it had paid little attention to the quality of the work.

The Mahayuti government went into a defensive mode and Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's official reaction came only in the evening, more than six hours after the incident.

Shinde said the opposition has enough time to criticise the government. "It's a very unfortunate incident. The statue was designed and erected by the Navy. The damage was caused due to the wind at 45 km per hour speed. I am going to visit the place to ascertain the cause of the damage. The officials from the Navy and the PWD will be visiting the site," he added.