Ramesh Pawar, the Joint Municipal Commissioner of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) accidentally drank hand sanitizer just before presenting the civic body's annual budget.
A video of the incident shows Pawar picking up a bottle of hand sanitizer instead of water. Within seconds, he realised it wasn't water. Meanwhile, a staff member also rushed to stop him. He was immediately provided a bottle of water.
Explaining the sequence of events, Pawar said that he intended to drink some water before beginning his speech. Since the bottles were similar, he accidentally grabbed the hand sanitizer.
"I thought that I should drink water before starting my speech so I lifted the bottle and drank. Bottles of water & sanitiser kept there, were similar. So it happened. As soon as I drank it, I realised the mistake and didn't gulp it all the way down," he said.
He then rushed out of the hall, spit out the sanitizer, and rinsed his mouth. Pawar returned within a few minutes and presented the civic body's education budget having an outlay of Rs 2,945.78 crore for the year 2021-22.
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