Thackeray govt issued 400 orders in its last days, we are reviewing them: Fadnavis

PTI, Jul 26, 2022, 4:47 PM IST

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday said the previous Uddhav Thackeray-led government issued a whopping 400 government orders in its last days in office and allotted funds that were five times more than the budgetary allocation.

These government orders (called government resolutions in official parlance), largely related to allocation of funds for various development-related works, were issued at a time when the ruling coalition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) was reduced to a minority following a revolt in the Shiv Sena and the three-party dispensation’s legitimacy was under doubt, he said.

The new Eknath Shinde-BJP government is reviewing such hasty decisions to avoid unnecessary burden on the state exchequer, said Fadnavis while speaking to reporters here at Mantralaya, the administrative headquarters of the Maharashtra government.

“The previous government led by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray government had issued 400 government orders and allocated funds five times more than the budgetary allocation (in its last days in office). If we go ahead with these orders, there will be an unnecessary burden on the state exchequer,” said the BJP leader.

Since taking oath on June 30, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and his deputy Fadnavis have been carrying out a review of functioning of various departments and stayed several government orders issued by the erstwhile Shiv Sena-led administration.

This move has irked the opposition parties, including the Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, the Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress. Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Ajit Pawar of the NCP has requested Shinde not to put an arbitrary stay on all government decisions, saying such a move move will halt several ongoing development works.

Fadnavis said, “It was not right for the government to issue orders when it had lost moral right to remain in office. The (Thackeray-led MVA) government was in a minority and should not have taken such decisions. Hence, we are taking a review of all these decisions and giving permission on merit.” Thackeray resigned as Chief Minister on June 29 following a rebellion by a section of Shiv Sena MLAs led by Shinde on June 21.

Shinde and Fadnavis were sworn-in on June 30, but a full-fledged state cabinet is yet to be put in place.