CM Shinde and Deputy CM Fadnavis at a meeting with Vedanta-Foxconn officials. (File)Mumbai BJP president Ashish Shelar has demanded an inquiry by a retired judge to ascertain the role of the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi government in the deal with Vedanta-Foxconn falling through. “What efforts did the Aghadi government make to bring this project to Maharashtra?” he asked on Wednesday, requesting Chief Minister Eknath Shinde to get the matter investigated through a retired judge.
Holding MVA responsible for letting the project relocate to Gujarat, Shelar said, “Then Industries minister Subash Desai (MVA) government owes an explanation as to what they did to retain the project.” Shelar said Shinde and his deputy Devendra Fadnavis had gone all out in pursuing the project since July 2022. He said, “On July 26, a delegation under the managing director of Vedanta Global, Arya Hebbar, met the CM and Deputy CM and gave a presentation on the project”…”the delegation said they were keen to invest in Talegaon, Pune due to the availability of skilled manpower, industry-friendly environment, connectivity to Mumbai and JNPT ports, strong value chain, and modern infrastructure.”
TIMELINE
August 2015: BJP-Shiv Sena govt headed by Devendra Fadnavis announces Foxconn plan to invest in Maharashtra
October 2016: Fadnavis says Foxconn discussing issues it faces with Centre
October 2017: Indo-China row delayes project, says Fadnavis
July 2018: Meetings continue between Foxconn and state officials over land requirement
January 2020: Industries minister Subhash Desai announces that deal with Foxconn cancelled due to company’s internal disputes with Apple Inc
January 2022: Minister Aaditya Thackeray and NCP MP Praful Patel hold virtual meeting with Anil Agarwal, chairman of Vedanta Resources Limited, to bring projects like semiconductor and display FAB to state
May 2022: Desai and Aaditya meet Agarwal at World Economic Forum in Davos
July 2022: Delegation of Vedanta-Foxconn meets CM Eknath Shinde and Deputy CM Fadnavis. Govt issues press release about project with an investment of Rs 1.54 lakh crore. Also mentioned is that executives of Vedanta-Foxconn are satisfied with the project site proposed at Talegaon Phase IV
September 5, 2022: Agarwal meets Prime Minister Narendra Modi, says that along with energy security for India, Vedanta FAB and semiconductor project discussed
September 13, 2022: Vedanta-Foxconn signs MoU with Gujarat govt