Mumbai: The Maharashtra government has cancelled the guarantee on loans of over Rs 300 crore taken by seven sugar mills owned by BJP leaders, including Pankaja Munde, an official said on Thursday.
The decision was taken at a meeting of the Uddhav Thackeray-led state Cabinet on Wednesday, he said.
The National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) provides loans to cooperatives and the state government gives a guarantee on it based on some terms and conditions.
“Since these seven sugar cooperatives did not fulfil the conditions put up for the guarantee, the state Cabinet decided to cancel the guarantee,” the official said.
These sugar cooperatives did not meet conditions like having a positive net worth and no non-performing assets (NPAs) or liabilities, he said.
Apart from a sugar mill owned by former state minister Pankaja Munde, another cooperative of Vinay Kore, leader of the Jansurajya Shakti Party which is an ally of the BJP, was also given the guarantee, the official said.
The decision to give loan guarantees to these seven sugar mills was taken by the previous BJP-led government in September this year before the state Assembly polls.
Sources earlier said that 34 decisions taken by the previous Devendra Fadnavis government in its last days came up for discussion during the Cabinet meeting.
State minister Eknath Shinde on Wednesday said the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government will assess status of the ongoing infrastructure projects undertaken by the previous BJP-Shiv Sena dispensation.
