On the ongoing skirmish between the Shiv Sena and BJP, Chavan reiterated that the Sena would withdraw support before the 2017 BMC elections.
Attacking Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and his government, former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan said Monday that the state government’s claim of having signed 2,594 MoUs (memorandum of understandings) attracting investment worth Rs 8 lakh crore in Maharashtra was a lie.
Chavan said the state government was running a “Fraud in India” campaign, and not Make In India campaign.
“The Chief Minister is lying, and so is his government. They are spreading falsehoods to gain people’s trust. But we have found out that they are trying to fool the people of Maharashtra by dishing out fake numbers,” Chavan told reporters after addressing a Congress rally in Pimpri-Chinchwad.
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The former CM said he had raised the issue in the state legislature, seeking details of the MoUs signed, but had got no reply from the government. “Similarly, I have sought information under Right to Information Act. Here too, the Chief Minister’s Office and the industry ministry have not responded. I have decided to go in for an appeal,” he said.
Chavan said the government was claiming it had put the information on its website sector-wise. “What sector-wise information are they talking of… We are asking for the names of the companies with whom they have signed the MOUs, the financial status of the units, the area where the investment is going to take place and other relevant details. But the government is fighting shy of providing the details, especially relating to the names of the companies,” he said.
When contacted, the CMO said the industry ministry had already clarified on the signing of the Mos. “At least 40 per cent of the companies have been allotted land and the the process for the remaining was under way. It is incorrect to say the government is lying,” an official said.
Chavan also accused the Fadnavis government of keeping Pimpri-Chinchwad out of the central government’s smart city mission though the city was picked from Maharashtra for the smart city list. “Pimpri-Chinchwad was at number 10 spot. But the Maharashtra government later took upon itself the task of giving marks out of 40 while the Centre was to decide about allotting 60 marks. The Maharashtra government deliberately gave less marks to Pimpri-Chinchwad,” he alleged.
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“I had sought information from the central government as to whether the Maharashtra government was empowered to give marks to cities while picking them for the smart city mission. The central government has clarified in the RTI reply it had not given any powers to anybody. Then how did Maharashtra government decide about giving marks?” he asked.
After the uproar, Chavan said, the Fadnavis government again “lied” that it had made efforts to get Pimpri-Chinchwad in the smart city list. “It actually made all efforts to keep Pimpri-Chinchwad out of the smart city mission,” he said. The only option now, said Chavan, was to approach the courts.
On the ongoing skirmish between the Shiv Sena and BJP, Chavan reiterated that the Sena would withdraw support before the 2017 BMC elections.
About the demand for a ban on Sanatan Sanstha, Chavan said his government had demanded a ban on the organisation in 2011. “We had submitted a dossier on the Sansthan to the central government after we came across the dangerous activities of the organisation and demanded a ban on it,” he said.
Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.
Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives.
Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees.
During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa.
Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.
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On the ongoing skirmish between the Shiv Sena and BJP, Chavan reiterated that the Sena would withdraw support before the 2017 BMC elections.
