Nagpur:
The issue of development of Vidarbha refused to diffuse in the Assembly even as the discussion under rule 293 on the region’s development kicked off on Friday with more fireworks from the Opposition. Lambasting the Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis over the issue, NCP MLA Jayant Patil said that the CM has backed off on his tall claims regarding development of Vidarbha even after one year of being into power. He alerted that if similar situation persists, all the 44 ‘lotuses’ (referring to Shiv Sena and BJP MLAs from Vidarbha as BJP’s symbol) will be replaced by ‘Ghadi’ and ‘Panja’ (party symbols of NCP and Congress) and then we would pick up the Chief Minister from Vidarbha, in the new arrangement.
Taking a dig at State Advocate General Shrihari Aney for his Vidarbha comments, Patil advised Fadnavis to move away from ‘one aana, two anaa (referring to Aney as pice) and focus on allround development of Vidarbha in his capacity as Maharashtra CM and draw sizeable investments. Representing a smaller state would be of little importance, he commented
Pitch for one State
Patil stressed upon the need to take proper decision in order to clear Vidarbha backlog, instead of focusing on bifurcation of Maharashtra, which he said, is a potential Marathi speaking state. Meanwhile, protesting Aney’s comments, Shiv Sena MLAs marched towards the well of the House only to returned back as soon as the Chief Minister stood up to address the meeting.
The miserable Vidarbha
Pointing out the injustice meted out to Vidarbha, Patil said that the units of companies like Amazon and Foxconn would have been brought in Nagpur MIDC, but despite the CM being from Vidarbha the investment worth Rs 30,000 crores by Foxconn was instead taken outside the region whereas 2 units of Amazon are being planned in Bhivandi. He pressed for the need to bring more industrial investments in Vidarbha to pull the region out of crisis.
About broken promises…
He commented that the Chief Minister, Finance Minister and Energy Minister miserably failed on their promises and not even 10% of their claims have been fulfilled. He said Reliance asked for land in MIDC and acquired over 104 acres but paid for only 50% land area. Further pinpointing the administrative loopholes, Patil said the plan to start operation of 4 companies including Nestle and Hyderabad Solar in Butibori, has been stuck up in the NOC by Ministry of Environment.
Patil informed that about 14 companies invested in the State at the behest of CM but not a single was assigned to Vidarbha. Commenting on Gosikhurd project, he said an extra provision of Rs 3000-4000 crores is required to be made in the next financial budget in order to complete the project.
