Ajit Pawar compares schemes of MVA and BJP govts for Maha

Deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar on Friday compared the schemes and projects of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government to the previous Bharatiya Janata Party

Deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar on Friday compared the schemes and projects of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government to the previous Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government in the state to get back at the Opposition, which had said his budget is likely to cause “regional imbalance”. Pawar said they were performing better than the BJP government — be it on loan waiver, allocation for district development or providing funds for key projects.

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Replying to a debate on the budget, which he presented last Friday, Pawar said they had made “equal provisions for every region and a few sectors have been given allocations like never before”. During the debate, leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis had alleged that the budget concentrated only on two regions neglecting other parts — Vidarbha, Marathwada, north Maharashtra —of the state.

Pawar said the loan waiver by MVA was rolled out in just two months and Rs11,340 crore has been disbursed in accounts of more than 17.80 lakh farmers in just 15 days. “We are planning to credit the accounts of all eligible farmers by April 15. The previous government took 34 months to implement the scheme, which never benefited the number of farmers announced. Former CM Devendra Fadnavis himself had announced that 89 lakh farmers will be benefitted by the waiver worth Rs34,000 crore. They had to issue 26 government resolutions, whereas we issued only one without any rider,” said Pawar.

Pawar said the highest amount disbursed under the waiver was for Marathwada and Vidarbha. The finance minister said the Fadnavis government had discriminated against a few districts while allocating development funds. He said districts such as Pune, Sangli, Satara and Solapur were given less money than their entitlement to favour districts from Vidarbha. “Nashik region was given Rs196 crore less; Pune region Rs310 crore less, while the Nagpur division was given Rs525 crore against its entitlement of Rs288 crore. We, on the other hand, have ensured that all the regions get the funds as per their entitlements and have increased the limits,” he said.

Fadnavis later told the mediapersons the claims by the finance minister were false. “He has given misleading figures about district development funds. Instead of giving realistic figures, Pawar chose to give a political speech. We are moving breach of privilege motion for the misleading figures,” he said.