Maharashtra Congress spokesperson Atul Londhe has alleged that all stakeholders in the triple-engine government have come together only for power. (News18 File Photo)
The Opposition leaders, including Anil Deshmukh, have been questioning the Maharashtra government on withdrawing Government Resolutions, and have criticised it for lacking communication among all stakeholders
In the last one hand half years, the Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis government in Maharashtra has withdrawn five Government Resolutions (GR). Despite claiming to be “better communicators”, the state government is now facing the ire of the Opposition over the reasons behind withdrawing the GRs.
Since Ajit Pawar joined hands with the Shinde-Fadnavis government, the ‘Mahayuti’ has always claimed to have very smooth communication among all three stakeholders. But, according to the reports, the government has withdrawn five GRs in different departments such as agriculture and education, in less than 1.5 years.
When the state agriculture department announced that Maharashtra has enough production of sugarcane, the revenue department later put restrictions on the inter-state sale of the crop. After the farmers protested government’s move, the order was withdrawn.
In the 2022-23 sugar season, which ended on September 30, Maharashtra has produced 105 lakh tonnes of sugar, down 23% from a year ago due to rainfall.
In another instance, while giving loan of Rs 539 crore to six sugar mills, the finance department had put a condition that the directors of the sugar mills will have to take personal responsibility of the loan.
Few BJP leaders, who were directly and indirectly associated with these sugar mills, approached Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra and compliant against the move by Ajit Pawar’s department. Later, the condition was withdrawn by the finance department.
Shiv Sena Shinde faction leader and education minister Deepak Kesarkar received flak from schools and parents when his department decided that all schools in the state will have one uniform. The order was also later revoked.
When the state government took the decision to make new changes in the State Service Commission exams, the aspirants protested. The government then decided to implement the new changes from 2025.
In another case, the government’s decision to distribute the land parcel of Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC), by which it would have supposedly earned around Rs 12,000 crore, was also withdrawn.
Maharashtra Congress chief spokesperson Atul Londhe has questioned the government over the withdrawal of GRs. “This government works under the pressure of 50 khokha (a term used to describe crore rupees) given to their MLAs. This example shows lack of consensus between all stakeholders of this government. It is very much clear that they come together just for ‘power’ nothing else.”
Meanwhile, Anil Deshmukh, NCP (Sharad Pawar faction)’s chief, said, “I was part of many governments, but to date, I have never seen anyone rolling back on its decisions. We never functioned like this. This is happening because there is ‘Triple Engine’ government in the state. This clearly shows that all three parties have very poor coordination while taking decisions.”
News18 tried to reach out to the spokesperson(s) from the state government, but the call went unanswered.
