Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. (Express file photo)Announcing that the stay on district plan schemes is not a permanent one and will be lifted after due consideration from district guardian ministers to be appointed soon, Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Monday claimed that the previous Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government did not release funds for the then opposition BJP MLAs.
“But we will not act like you. We will ensure that no development schemes lack funds,” said Fadnavis. He was replying to the discussion on supplementary demands.
“The money was released under 25/15 scheme for ruling party MLAs and we did not get in the first year. The next year, we received Rs 1 crore, unlike five crore for ruling side. Even our 105 (BJP MLAs) did not get anything under district plan,” said Fadnavis. He added that the state government has an authority to scrutinise and stay release of funds in the district plan. “But it is slowly being lifted now,” he said.
Earlier, leader of Opposition Ajit Pawar said he had increased MLA funds to Rs five crore which benefited MLAs from all parties. Pawar said he had sought a list from the then Leader of Opposition, Fadnavis, of MLAs for whom funds were to be released and did so on the basis of that.
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While Fadnavis stressed on funds, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, while replying on a discussion about supplementary demands for his Urban Development department, announced to study usability of skywalks in Mumbai Metropolitan Region through a joint study by BMC and Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA). Shinde also announced to conduct a study on extending Metro 5 line from Thane to Kalyan to further to Shahad and Titwala.