Govt is legal, constitutional & proved majority on the floor of the house: CM Shinde to opposition

Chief Minister Mr Eknath Shinde on Sunday strongly countered the opposition’s allegation that the present government was illegal and unconstitutional saying that it was formed as per the provisions of the Constitution and has proven majority on the floor of the house. Mr Shinde, who was accompanied by his deputy Mr Devendra Fadnavis after the state cabinet meeting and a boycott by the opposition on the customary tea meeting on the eve of the winter session of the state legislature at Nagpur, led a scathing attack on the opposition and claimed that the government (Uddhav Thackeray led Maha Vikas Aghadi government) was immoral government. ‘’The government formed in 2019 by ditching the voters’ mandate,’’ he claimed.

On the leader of opposition Mr Ajit Pawar’s accusation that the government is ‘’khoke sarkar’’ (formed after alleged horse trading and exchange of money), Mr Shinde targeted the former and challenged him saying that ‘’if layers of boxes are placed, the peak will be so high that it will not be understood.’’

Mr Shinde asked the opposition not to politicise the Maharashtra-Karnataka border issue and defended the intervention by the Union Home Minister Mr Amit Shah. ‘’The union home minister’s mediation was crucial as it did not happen during the MVA rule. The home minister has already announced that FIR will be lodged against people behind the fake Twitter accounts named after senior leaders who have played a very big role in flaring up the issue.’’

Mr Fadnavis said that the government has an intelligence report about the leaders from a particular party instigating the villagers to pass resolutions for going to Maharashtra or Karnataka or Gujarat or Telangana. He added that the government will soon reveal the details in this regard and asked the opposition not to politicise the border issue.

Countering the opposition’s charge of not doing anything in the last six months and its failure on all fronts, Mr Shinde said, ‘’We have done so much work in four months that some people are afraid of how much work we will do in the next two years. So we are being criticized. The government was also criticised over the distribution of four items through the public distribution system for Diwali. Nearly 96% has been completed. It was the Shiv Sena BJP government which took the decision for the celebrations of all festivals which was not done by MVA government citing the pandemic.’’

On the opposition's charge of stay on a slew of decisions taken by the MVA government, Mr Shinde the government has lifted stay on almost 80% of these works. He strongly defended the government’s move to impose a stay saying that ‘’In some cases, it was found that the expenses were shown beyond the approved amounts. Despite the provision of Rs 2,000 crore in many departments, works worth Rs 6,000-7,000 crore wee approved.’’

Mr Shinde and Mr Fadnavis said that the government is keen to have a debate on various issues even though the opposition wants to disrupt the proceedings. Mr Fadnavis said that the Chief Minister will fulfil the opposition’s wish to have a three weeks winter session in Nagpur.

Mr Shinde also took a swipe at the MVA government over clearing the revised administrative approval for just one irrigation project while the present government has given a nod worth Rs 18,000 crore which will bring in over 2.5 lakh hectares of land under irrigation.