MUMBAI: Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde expanded his cabinet 40 days after the government was formed, but a month after the portfolios were allocated, no guardian ministers were appointed for districts.
Maharashtra Congress leader Atul Londe said it has never happened in the history of the state that the districts have no guardian ministers. “The unconstitutional Shinde-Fadnavis government has hampered development in the state. We have never witnessed such a delay in cabinet expansion or appointment of guardian ministers. The District Planning Development Committee is chaired by the guardian minister and all local body presidents are its members. It has not been in operation for one month. Besides, the Shinde government stopped release of funds for all the sanctioned work from April. There is huge chaos at ground level,” Londe said.
NCP spokesperson Sanjay Tatkare said DPDC is a crucial body for the development of rural areas. “Contractors are waiting for funds to be released while infrastructure works, and health and education projects are also getting hampered due to absence of DPDC,” he added.
The secretary house – Mantralaya has worn the deserted look for the last several days. Hardly any ministers are turning to his office to clear the files. While chief minister Eknath Shinde and deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis are busy in Ganpati darshan. Both are going from one Ganesh mandal to another mandal in Mumbai and Pune since the last ten days. Their official schedule is full of Ganesh mandal visits from morning to evening. We are in a very sorry state,” Tatkare said.
NCP leader and Lok Sabha member Supriya Sule criticized this delay and apathy towards the development work of the state. She said Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde is busy in Ganesh darshan so Maharashtra should have two chief ministers, one (Ekanth Shinde) will take care of all religious functions while another chief minister will sit at Mantralaya and do the development work and address the peoples issue. We have never seen such kind of situation in Maharashtra,” Ms Sule said.
Maharashtra NCP president Jayant Patil said that Ganesh festival will be over now, hope Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde will get time for people to work in Mantralaya. “Farmers are promised many things in the recently concluded monsoon session of the state assembly, but delivery on promises such as giving Rs 50,000 to regular crop loan paying farmers, compensations to crop damaged farmers in heavy rain etc,” Patil said.
Officials in Mantralaya said that if their bosses (ministers) are not attending the offices, then they are not also bothered to turn up. “There is a lot of confusion in this government. There is no clarity whether this incumbent government will stay or go away once the Supreme court’s constitutional bench verdict is out. There is literally no work at all,” he added, requesting anonymity.