Maharashtra Needs a Better Administration

 

The Shiv Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government has given the people of Maharashtra more than one reason to complain about its incompetence in dealing with crisis situations. Ever since it came to power in November 2019, it has been stumbling from one crisis to another.

Last year, Maharashtra found itself reeling under the Covid pandemic, unkept promises to farmers affected due to unseasonal rainfall and cyclone, people facing electricity supply cuts for defaulting payment of hiked bills by the state’s power supplier, rising atrocities against women, the unresolved issue of reservation for OBCs and Marathas, the Sachin Vaze episode, etc.

The government’s move of transferring Mumbai’s former top cop and Vaze’s superior Param Bir Singh to the Home Guards in the wake of the series of events raises eyebrows, especially since Singh alleged that home minister Anil Deshmukh had demanded Vaze to collect Rs100 crore from 1,750 pubs in Mumbai every month.

Also, the government could not respond adequately when asked about the death of Mansukh Hiren, whose car, laden with explosives, was found suspiciously parked outside Mukesh Ambani’s residence. The government handed over the case to the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS), which comes under the state home department.

On the one hand, the government wasted no time reinstating Vaze. On the other, it took almost a year-and-a-half to respond to the demands of teachers in government-unaided schools.

Last year, farmers from Marathwada and Vidarbha eagerly awaited government financial aid after they suffered huge losses due to heavy rains and floods. Uddhav Thackeray had, before becoming chief minister, assured a relief package of Rs 25,000 per hectare to these farmers. But ultimately, the farmers barely received Rs10,000 per hectare.

Then there’s the alleged suicide of 22-year-old Pooja Chavan with alleged connections with a sena minister. This case, too, has been let off lightly by the government.

In this context, one must ask that question from the 2016 Mahesh Manjrekar-directed, Nana Patekar-starring film, Natsamrat – ‘Kuni ghar deta ka ghar?’ (Can someone lend me a home?). Today people from Maharashtra are looking forward to having a corruption-free, stable government which in the truest sense will be of the people, for the people and by the people.

 

(Article Pre-Published in Economic Times Online, 4 May 2021)

Keshav Upadhye, chief spokesperson