Ready for 4-week session in Nagpur if opposition agrees: Fadnavis

Nagpur: Deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis reiterated on Sunday that the Maharashtra government was ready for a four-week session here if the opposition agreed. He and chief minister Eknath Shinde, however, refused to answer a query on Vidarbha statehood, asking the media whether it was facing “scarcity of headlines”.
Replying to opposition leader Ajit Pawar’s barb, where he demanded three-week session in Vidarbha to compensate for two years when it was not held due to Covid-19 pandemic, Fadnavis said that when Pawar was deputy CM, he had not allowed even a single session to be held here and was now making tall claims.
“It was only because of our government that the session is being held here. I am happy that Pawar finally remembered Vidarbha. Pleasant weather here may have prompted him to ask for extending the session. The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government was under the impression that there was no Covid pandemic in Mumbai and therefore conducted all sessions there for two years. They ignored Nagpur, despite fewer cases here. All this exposes their contradiction,” he said, adding that the CM would fulfil Pawar’s wish.
Replying to a query on Mihan project not being able to take off in reality, even after years, Fadnavis said airport modernisation remained the only obstacle and their government had plans to start the process in a couple of months. Last Sunday, Fadnavis had invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to lay the foundation stone of the modernisation project when the former was in Nagpur for inaugurating Samruddhi Expressway.
Infrastructure giant GMR was awarded a contract by then Fadanvis government, but it went into legal tangles over the revenue sharing model. GMR however won the case in the Nagpur bench of Bombay high court, and then in the Supreme Court, and is awaiting the government nod to formally make an announcement in this regard.
“The Patanjali plant at Mihan has started production and I have personally talked to yoga guru Baba Ramdev in this regard. Even Gosikhurd project, which Pawar had mentioned, would be completed with a time-bound programme,” the Southwest Nagpur MLA said.
Speaking on Vidarbha’s backlog, which was raised by Pawar, Fadnavis said they would table all figures in the assembly. “When Sudhir Mungantiwar was finance minister of the state, he increased the district plan budget for all Vidarbha districts every year. Since 2019-20, MVA reduced this budget twice. Hence, the injustice continued when Uddhav Thackeray was CM and Pawar was finance minister. We want to have more discussions on Vidarbha and Marathwada. If they want to create ruckus, we will still insist they have creative discussions.”
CM Shinde said he was aware of Vidarbha’s situation, as he was guardian minister for the backward district of Gadchiroli. “We will try to give justice to Vidarbha and Marathwada by discussing various issues pertaining to both regions in the assembly. We have changed National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) norms to provide more compensation to farmers here who suffered damage due to incessant rains, flash floods and wet drought. We have deposited Rs2,50,000 crore directly into the accounts of 6.90 lakh farmers,” he said.