White Paper on 4 mega projects gives clean chit to CM Eknath Shinde govt

Even as the White Paper released by the government states that there was no exodus or shifting of the four mega manufacturing projects from Maharashtra during Shinde-BJP led government’s tenure, Sena (UBT) leader and former Minister Aaditya Thackeray junked the White Paper, saying that the document was nothing but a chronology of the failure of the ‘khoke government’ (Shinde-led state government). He further alleged that the Centre purposely ignored Maharashtra for setting up the Bulk Drug Park in the state despite it being the best suited for the project in the country.

खोके सरकारच्या नाकर्तेपणाची आणि उद्योगजगताचा सध्याच्या सरकारवर अजिबात विश्वास नसण्याची साक्ष देणारी ‘श्वेतपत्रिका’ आज प्रकाशित झाली! महाराष्ट्राबाहेर गेलेले ४ मेगा प्रकल्प हा ह्या श्वेतपत्रिकेचा विषय!

मविआ सरकारच्या काळात जे उद्योग व प्रकल्प @midc_india सोबत महाराष्ट्रात…

— Aaditya Thackeray (@AUThackeray) August 3, 2023

“It proves how during MVA, an industry that had gone into advance level talks with MIDC, shifted its base as soon as it met the leadership of the illegally formed ‘khoke sarkar’,” Aaditya tweeted.

“The White Paper, while mentioning most dates and facts, compels one to read the most evident fact: the Shinde-BJP hatred for Maharashtra and how industries were sent to another state, once the khoke sarkar was formed. Industry has no confidence in the politically unstable state that gang of gaddars (traitors) wanted to make it into. The state unfortunately has an absolutely incapable illegal CM who has pushed away industry after meeting them,” Aaditya said in a tweet.

Giving the chronology of the timeline of all projects, the White Paper highlighted that there was no correspondence or meeting between the state government’s industries department and Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation(MIDC) with Tata Airbus and Saffron Project, and that none of the four above mentioned companies had taken a decision to set up the projects in Maharashtra, and so it is not right to say that the project moved out of the state.

The White Paper states that the state government had pursued the Vedanta-Foxconn Joint Venure(JV), a Rs 1.5-lakh crore electronics and semiconductors manufacturing plant, through all levels of the government including CM level, and even offered the best incentive package, but the JV preferred to set up in Gujarat. The White Paper also states that, “in case of BDP project, even as the state’s proposal was not approved by the Centre, the BDP project is slated to be set up by state government using its own funds and land is being acquired for it,” the White Paper states.

However, Aaditya said that while the White Paper only mentions Vedanta-Foxconn, Airbus-Tata, Bulk Drug Park, Saffron industries, and fails to speak of the other industries pushed away from Maharashtra, such as the medical device park and solar energy equipment park.