Shiv Sena’s Aaditya Thackeray comes out of Sena Bhavan after meeting party workers on Friday. (Express/Ganesh Shirsekar) Even as the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government is currently facing a survival crisis due to a rebellion by Shiv Sena Minister Eknath Shinde, the state departments – mostly controlled by allies NCP and Congress – have issued government orders for the release of funds worth thousands of crores in the last four days for development works.
This has prompted Leader of Opposition in the state Legislative Council, Pravin Darekar, to write to Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari. The BJP has sought the Governor’s intervention to curb the “rush of GRs (government resolutions)” seen over the past few days, which it termed as “suspicious”.
Between June 20 and 23, the departments have issued 182 GRs, while on June 17, 107 such GRs were passed. These orders can be found on the government’s official website. Although Shinde’s rebellion became public on June 21 morning, his growing discomfort had been sensed by the Sena’s allies NCP and Congress. Since the ruling partners had sensed what was coming, the departments controlled by these parties went on a spree to issue the GRs, sources said.
The water supply and sanitation department, headed by Sena’s Gulabrao Patil, issued over 84 GRs on June 17. Most of the orders were pertaining to sanction of funds, administrative approvals and for salaries of staff working on various water supply schemes. Patil was among the last Sena legislators who joined the rebel camp headed by Shinde by reaching in Guwahati.
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June 17 was a Friday – the last working day of the week – and MLC elections took place on Monday. During the June 20 and 23 period, the least number of GRs – 28 – were issued on Monday. On the following day, 66 GRs were issued. In the past two days – on June 22 and 23 – the government has issued 44 and 43 orders, respectively.
As per the data, since Monday, the departments controlled by NCP and Congress went on a spree as over 70 per cent of the 182 orders were issued. The departments such as social justice, water resources, skill development, housing development, finance and home, being headed by the NCP, have issued maximum number of GRs.
Some GRs were issued by the Congress-controlled departments such as tribal development, revenue, PWD, school education, OBC and fisheries. The soil and conservation department, handled by Independent MLA and Minister Shankarrao Gadakh, passed nearly 20 orders.
During the last four days, only a couple of GRs from the departments controlled by Sena were issued. The GRs were issued by the industries department, Marathi language handled by the outgoing minister Subhash Desai and also tourism department helmed by Aaditya Thackeray. But apart from these three, no other departments handled by the Sena issue any GR.
A couple of GRs were issued by the tribal development department controlled by Congress, which are cumulatively worth over Rs 1,000 crore. The finance department, controlled by Deputy Chief Minister and NCP leader Ajit Pawar, issued a GR increasing the local area development funds to Rs 319 crore.
In a letter to Koshyari, BJP’s Darekar said, “Some 160 government resolutions were issued by the MVA in the last 48 hours, which looks suspicious. I request you to intervene in this matter and put a curb on it.”
The BJP leader also alleged that there was a plan to transfer some key officials in the state, including those from the home department.
A top bureaucrat said, “Some IAS officers are not coming to the Mantralaya, as they do not want to be a part of such decisions that can attract controversy later.”
–With PTI inputs
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