Vedanta-Foxconn, Tata-Airbus decisions taken before we came to power: Samant

“A memorandum of understanding (MoU) to set up the aircraft unit in Gujarat was signed by the Centre in September 2021. The decisions to set up Vedanta-Foxconn project or the Tata-Airbus project in Gujarat were taken before our government came to power. But the Opposition is just criticising and creating misconceptions about us,” Sawant said.

Asked if any effort was made by the state to get the Tata-Airbus project to Maharashtra, Samant said, “I had said that I will try to bring the project to Nagpur but came to know that a deal had already been signed a year ago. I then checked with the department… what offers were made to the company or what was communicated to the company and the Centre on bringing the project in Maharashtra… I came to know that there was not a single document on this. This means that the earlier government had not made any effort but was now blaming us for its own mistake.”

After the Vedanta-Foxconn project went to Gujarat, Samant had said that Chief Minister Eknath Shinde had spoken to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who assured that a similar or bigger project would come to Maharashtra. “I am still firm on it. Recently, we went to Delhi and got the project to set up nine logistics parks in Maharashtra,” the minister said.

“I am assuring that we will bring a bigger project to the state in the next six to seven months and then those who are criticising us now will have to felicitate us. There will be more employment for youths in the state,” Samant said without elaborating.

Sources said that the state government is pushing for a oil refinery project in Ratnagiri district. The project, which was initially planned at Nanar village, has faced opposition from local residents and is likely to be shifted to neighbouring Barsu-Solgaon.

Samant further said that recently, the government had bagged a Rs 20,000-crore project for Raigad. He was referring to a pulp paper manufacturing project of Cinnar Mas Pulp and Paper Private Limited.

The minister refuted the claims of Worli MLA Aaditya Thackeray and former industries minister Subhash Desai that during the MVA government’s tenure, it had brought investment worth Rs 6 lakh crore to the state. “Had this much investment come to the state, jobs would have been created, which is not visible,” he added.

BJP, meanwhile, demanded that Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) chief Uddhav Thackeray should apologise to the people of Maharashtra for not taking any step in the last two years to communicate with officials from Airbus, which it claimed led to the state losing the Tata-Airbus project to Gujarat.

BJP’s Maharashtra cell took to social media on Friday afternoon to say, “Airbus went to Gujarat only because Uddhav Thackeray locked himself in his house for 2.5 years. There is no record of Maharashtra giving any proposal at the time when Airbus started exploring to put its project in India, in 2020.”