As Maharashtra slipped to the third position behind Karnataka and Gujarat in terms of investments, Congress and Shiv Sena on Tuesday slammed Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis for the state’s dismal economic performance.
Citing data from the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP), Maharashtra Congress President Ashok Chavan said that over the past four years, Maharashtra has fallen to the third position from its numero uno status earlier.
He accused Fadnavis of maintaining “silence on issues involving Gujarat”, which has benefited at the cost of Maharashtra.
“There is the Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train project, new airports and flights are being announced for Gujarat and there is a clear attempt to ignore the country’s financial capital Mumbai to benefit Gujarat,” Chavan said.
The Shiv Sena, an ally of the BJP government in Maharashtra as well as at the Centre, attacked Fadnavis in party mouthpieces – ‘Saamana’ and ‘Dopahar Ka Saamana’ for the steep fall in industrial investments.
As per the DIPP statistics, in 2018, Maharashtra received just Rs 46,428 crore investments, compared to Rs 59,089 in Gujarat and Rs 83,236 crore in Karnataka.
“The government feels that we only criticise them, but these are hard statistics. How can the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) speak of ‘Magnetic Maharashtra’ without delivering upon its promises to the people,” Chavan asked.
He held the Shiv Sena equally guilty for the state’s decline and said the party cannot escape responsibility for the alliance government’s performance if it continued to remain an NDA partner at the Centre and in Maharashtra.
Chavan said that at a State Level Bankers Committee (SLBC) meeting in August, Bank of Maharashtra had demonstrated the state government’s total failure in implementing various initiatives.
Under one such initiative, each bank branch was supposed to provide loans to one woman, one Dalit and one Tribal person. The government expected to reach out to 22,890 borrowers, but could achieve a success rate of only 14.98 per cent by reaching out to just 3,430 persons, Chavan said.
“While Dalits, Tribals and women were promised loans of up to Rs 1 crore, the average lending amount was between Rs 16 lakh and Rs 17 lakh. They have been cheated by the government,” Chavan said.
The Shiv Sena said that in the past 10 years, 25 per cent of all investment proposals in the country across all important sectors were made to Karnataka, while the BJP-ruled states seem to “talk more and act less.”
“Mumbai’s economic status is being ruined by shifting the diamond industry and headquarters of several financial companies to Gujarat. Also, many big industries have shut down in Maharashtra and many more are floundering in engineering, pharmaceuticals, textiles, and other sectors. Though express highways are being created, the development is at a bullock-cart’s pace,” the Sena said.
