A Pune-based artist Nilesh has accused NCP (SP) MLA Rohit Pawar of not paying his dues for multiple artworks he did in his Assembly constituency.
He made wall paintings in Karjat Jamkhed in Ahmednagar, the Assembly constituency of Rohit Pawar. The work was done during the Covid period and the pending amount is ₹16 lakh.
He told news agency ANI, "My name is Nilesh. I do wall painting work. During the lockdown, Rohit Pawar and Amol Kolhe had come to inaugurate a painting of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj that I had made on the wall. During the event, Rohit Pawar appreciated my work and said we would give you more work. Rohit Pawar used to do very good work for the youth then. I am from a poor family, coming from Solapur." "I am staying in Pune with my mother. After the programme, Rohit Pawar sent one car for me the very next day and also finalised some locations in his constituency Karjat Jamkhed where I was asked to make paintings and those were very big paintings," he added.
Nilesh said that he has been facing financial issues for the last few years and had made the request to Rohit Pawar and his office but got no response and he is feeling helpless now.
He continued, "I was given the work of painting, there were two-three children along with me who were also involved in this work. Five of us together worked there for three months to make paintings. Meanwhile, my grandmother had also passed away, for which I had also spent a lot. I continued the work for which I had also asked for some money from Rohit Pawar but he told me that there was no need to send any bill etc."
"I felt that he was helping us artists during the lockdown. Later, when the work was over, I followed up with him many times but then he stopped picking up the phone and stopped replying to the messages, I tried to contact him through the phone, and I also sent messages to some of his workers. In between, my financial situation had deteriorated a lot, my brother also had an accident, then I had requested many times to give me my money but there was no response from there," said the artist.
He shared that he is going through a lot of financial issues, "I don't even have my own house, I am going through a lot of problems but no reply came from them. I want Rohit Pawar to pay my outstanding so that I can do something for myself with this money," he concluded.
