Sena-BJP does a post-mortem, post-haste

Rane said he will expose the `ad hoc’ Democratic Front government for its ad hoc policies. Earlier, the business advisory committee had accepted his demand for a two-day debate on the issue.

“We reject outright all the allegations levelled against the Sena-BJP alliance. All the schemes and plans chalked out by the erstwhile government were not only viable but gave a new direction to the State,” the former CM said.

Replying to the charge that the Sena-BJP handed the succeeding DF government a near empty State coffers, Rane reeled out figures from official records. According to him except in 1994-95, the State was always been experiencing deficit. “In 1994-95, the State was in revenue surplus, since the funds meant for development were not utilised owing to code of conduct in force. When we took over the reigns, the total income stood at Rs 14,000 crore and touched an all time high of Rs 24,000 crore,” he added.

The implementation of the Fifth Pay Commission’s recommendations had hit the State hard, Rane said. It was the principal reason for the very high deficit of Rs 7,972 crore. “The deficit was inevitable irrespective of the party in power because of the additional burden of Rs 5,000 crore. If the recommendations were rejected, then the deficit would have been much less,” he added.

Calling the DF government’s white papar as `black paper’, former Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde said the alliance government had repaid the installment of the loans secured by the Congress government. “During the five years, we had repaid Rs 8,770 crore for the loans obtained by the Congress after 1985. If Congress had not taken the loan, then there would not have been deficit at all,” he added.

Since successive Congress governments had failed to undertake any developmental works, the Sena-BJP government was left with no alternative but to secure loans for completing projects within a time frame. Citing an example, he said, “The Congress did not take any step to impound the water under the Krishna Water Award before May 2000. As a result, the alliance had to secure loans to complete the project before the deadline.”

On the DF government’s decision to probe into the sudden increase in the cost of the Krishna valley projects from Rs 7,100 crore to Rs 11,600 in five years, Munde said the original cost of the project was calculated on the basis of the 1993-prices. However, owing to price escalation and also due to inclusion of the major Tembu project in Solapur district, the total cost of the projects shot up, he added.

Justifying the huge loans secured by the alliance, Munde said, “Due to huge outgo on wages, pension, office expenses, less funds are available for developmental works. Successive governments have been facing this situation since 1975. Even during the Congress rule, such loans were obtained,” he said.

According former finance minister Mahadev Shivankar securing loans for developmental works is an accepted principle all over the world, particularly after unprecedented recession in the industrial sector. “Whether in construction of road network, flyovers, Mumbai-Pune Expressway or irrigation projects, our performance was outstanding. The Chief Minister will have to recognise this,” he added.