Fadnavis hits out at MVA government, calls it anti-development

The former CM blamed chief minister Uddhav Thackeray for mishandling the Covid-19 pandemic, excessive electricity bills, and cases against journalists-activists

Former Maharastra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has slammed the ruling Shiv Sena and its leadership for being “anti development” and accused them of stalling infrastructure projects key to Mumbai’s development. He blamed chief minister Uddhav Thackeray for mishandling the Covid-19 pandemic, excessive electricity bills, and cases against journalists-activists.

Devendra Fadnavis. (HT file)

Fadnavis said the Metro Line-3 car shed was shifted to Kanjurmarg just to satisfy the Shiv Sena leadership’s ego. He claimed the shifting will delay the project by five years and lead to the cost escalation by Rs4,000 crore.

“I had stayed the proposal of the car shed at Aarey for nine months after taking over as chief minister in 2014 just to check if there was an alternative to it to avoid environmental damage. After checking all other options, an expert committee of top officers said that Aarey was the only option as the Kanjumarg land was under litigation and it will lead to heavy losses and delay to the project,” he said at a meeting to chalk out the Bharatiya Janata Party’s strategy for the 2022 Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections.

“Even the committee appointed by Thackeray government under [bureaucrat] Manoj Saunik has recommended keeping the depot at Aarey for the same reasons cited by earlier committee. But the recommendation by their own committee was overruled while shifting the depot to Kanjurmarg.”

Fadnavis said that the car shed at Kanjurmarg will also lead to environmental destruction because of the construction. “When we proposed affordable housing scheme on the salt pan land for poor during our tenure, Thackeray had opposed the proposal citing the reason of environment. How can they allow a car shed that will need similar construction resulting in the environmental issues,” he said.

Fadnavis said the Thackerays were misleading people by saying they have notified 800 acres as forest land in Aarey. “We had notified it as an eco-sensitive zone during our tenure and as such construction was banned. By changing parlance, the Thackerays have been misleading people,” he said.

Fadnavis also attacked the government for opposing the Bullet Train project and said that investment of Rs50,000 crore in Maharashtra for the project would have given a push to the state’s GDP.