Mumbai: The Congress, a junior partner in the Shiv Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government, on Thursday expressed its displeasure over not getting due prominence in government functioning, non-allocation of adequate funds to the departments held by its ministers and having little say in the administration. A delegation comprising party ministers and senior leaders on Thursday met Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and sought his intervention to ensure that the party got its due respect, space in the functioning of the government and a higher allocation of funds for its ministers.
The delegation reportedly complained about the stepmotherly treatment given to departments held by Congress ministers including energy, tribal development, public work, relief and rehabilitation, as compared to the treatment of departments held by NCP and Shiv Sena.
The Congress party’s move comes at a time when there has been talk of an alliance between the Shiv Sena and NCP in the upcoming elections to the 15 civic bodies, including the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation if the Congress decides to go solo. The Congress’s move also comes days before the commencement of the budget session of the state legislature and the presentation of annual budget for 2020-23 by NCP veteran and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, who holds the finance and planning departments.
State unit chief Nana Patole said, “The Congress delegation called on Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and discussed important issues, including allocation of funds. The CM responded positively on all the issues raised by the Congress and has promised to look into the allocation of funds himself.”
“We made some suggestions to the CM regarding the work done by the Maha Vikas Aghadi government for the last two years. The disconnection of electricity connections, especially in the rural areas also came up for discussion,” said Patole.
Incidentally, Energy Minister Nitin Raut sought Thackeray’s intervention in the recovery of arrears of Rs 9,138 crore of the MahaVitaran towards power supply for water supply and streetlights from the rural development and urban development departments held by NCP Minister Hasan Mushrif and Shiv Sena Minister Eknath Shinde respectively. Raut had threatened that the power connection for these schemes would be disconnected if the bills were not paid.
Further, the delegation made a strong case for holding the election for the Assembly Speaker’s position during the budget session. It is expected to be on March 9. However, the Congress delegation argued that there should not be further postponement of the Speaker’s election as the post has been lying vacant for over 10 months, since Patole stepped down and took over as the state Congress chief.
Moreover, the delegation urged the CM to order a probe into a series of allegations of corruption, malpractices made by Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut against BJP leaders and the Central probe agency, the Enforcement Directorate.
