In 15 months, Sena reversed at least 5 major decisions of their own

The Maharashtra government has rolled back several major decisions, including recruitment agencies for government jobs and uniforms for school children. This has led to criticism and accusations of a lack of coordination within the ruling alliance.

Mumbai: The Maharashtra government’s decision to withdraw the orders issued to appoint agencies for the contractual recruitment of government jobs was not a one-off decision. The 15-month-old Shinde government has rolled back at least five major decisions taken by them, including uniforms for children in the government schools, the ban on crushing of sugarcane in neighbouring states, staying on the decisions taken by the previous Thackeray government, among others.

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Deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday announced the rollback of the empanelment system introduced for recruitment in the government. He said that the policy was introduced by the previous governments led by Congress over the last 20 years and the incumbent government should not be held responsible for it. However, the Shinde government appears to have backed out following backlash from the people, especially after the opposition termed the policy to be against the reservation. In the past 15 months of the ruling of the state government, the Shinde government has withdrawn many such decisions.

After Eknath Shinde and Fadnavis were sworn in as the CM and DyCM on June 30 last year, the state government issued more than 400 government resolutions for the development works started by the previous Thackeray government. Similarly, 91 allotments of land to industrial projects by Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) were also stayed, suspecting anomaly. Senior officials from the state government had strongly opposed the move saying it would hamper the development works and result in non-utilization of the central funds. The opposition moved high court against it. This resulted in the Shinde government scrapping most of the stay orders issued by it.

The school education department of the state, earlier this year had announced to roll out one standardised uniform for all 6.4 million students in the government schools. The uniforms were to be supplied by the central agency of the government. Parents, uniform manufacturers and even school management opposed the decision, forcing the government to roll it back in May 2023 and announcing the rollout from the next academic year.

The cooperation department of the state government announced a ban on the selling of sugarcane in other states for crushing owing to the drastic fall in production this year. It led to a sharp reaction among cane-growing farmers and protests by their organisations. The state, on September 22, announced to roll back the decision.

Some of the decisions are rolled back owing to the bitter internal tussle within the ruling alliance. CM Shinde, in the last week of August, reversed a decision of putting stringent conditions for six sugar cooperative mills controlled by BJP leaders for securing margin money loans of ₹539 crore from Nationals Cooperative Development Corporation. The conditions were put in by deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar a week before.

Shinde government, in February this year, had to announce the withdrawal of its plan to introduce a new descriptive exam pattern and syllabus from this year. The decision was deferred to next year after the students appearing for the civil services protested against the proposal.

Fadnavis on Friday had said that withdrawal of the decision of contractual recruitment was not an ignominy for the government. “We are scrapping the scheme as we do not believe in it. It is not under pressure from the opposition or due to their protest, it is the corrective step as we believe in the faith of youth behind us,” he said.

Mumbai-based political analyst Hemant Desai said that the withdrawal of too many decisions by the Shinde government indicates a lack of coordination within ruling parties. “Also, it is an indication of unrest among the people about the government. I am surprised that it has been happening even though three top leaders steering the government are experienced ones,” he said.