Uddhavrao, why are you always against development?

 

    The Supreme Court recently set seal on the order that the Metro car shed in Mumbai will be constructed at Aarey only. While stating that the decision taken by Devendra Fadnavis’ government of building a car shed for the Metro at Aarey was right, the Supreme Court allowed the felling of 84 more trees for the same. Surprisingly, neither Uddhavrao nor his self-proclaimed environmentalist son or those from his party who claim to be upfront have come up with any response on this.

    While rejecting the demand for adjournment of Aarey car shed, the Supreme Court opined that instead of Kanjurmarg, Aarey was the right choice for the car shed. Since the work on car shed at Aarey was stopped, the project cost got escalated by Rs 10,000 crore. And the people from the state will have to bear the brunt of this increased cost of the project. This decision of Uddhavrao’s government once again exposed the ugly and anti-development face of his Shiv Sena. In 2019, immediately after coming to power by betraying the mandate given by the people, Uddhav Thackeray got a stay on the car shed at Aarey. He had also opposed this project when he was in the government with Devendra Fadnavis as the chief minister.

    Mumbaikars are emotionally attached with this Metro project. One need not talk about how the Metro will ease Mumbaikars daily travel woes. With the intention to ease Mumbaikars’ travel woes and to improve their standard of living, Devendra Fadnavis had initiated the Metro project when he was the chief minister. Not just in Mumbai, but it was envisaged to come up in Pune and Nagpur as well. This project was challenged in the courts on environmental grounds. Even before that, many NGOs had also collaborated against this project. What was their purpose behind it is a separate topic to be discussed some other time. The central government had also decided to exclude a few acres of land in Aarey colony from the eco-sensitive zone (ESZ). This was appealed against in the Supreme Court by an NGO called Vanshakti. Strict scrutiny of the Mumbai Metro project on environmental criteria was conducted by both – the high court and the apex court. It was after this scrutiny only that the Supreme Court had, in June 2020 itself, disposed of the petition against the car shed coming up at Aarey.

    The National Green Tribunal had also approved the car shed to come up at Aarey. Despite all this, Uddhav Thackeray had, only to fulfil his son Aaditya’s childish insistence, deliberately stalled the project. The project was expected to be completed in 2021 only. But only because of Uddhavrao’s intractable behaviour, this utmost important project for Mumbaikars got stalled. The court also maintained that although environmental concerns are necessary, neglecting the amount of public investment that has gone in the project might become detrimental for similar such large investment projects coming up in the future. In fact, the project worth Rs 23,000 crore already had an investment of Rs 22,000 crore. Owing to the various court cases, the cost of the project escalated to Rs 37,000 crore. Questions thus arise in our minds as to why Uddhavrao Thackeray is against development. In fact, Uddhavrao, his son Aaditya and patra chawl fame Sanjayrao proclaim that only they love and care for the Marathi Manoos and Maharashtra in general. Despite knowing how the project will be beneficial for Mumbaikars, still to fulfil their intractable behaviour, this father-son duo created obstacles in its execution and left Mumbaikars to bear the consequences. Why did they do that, probably even Vikramaditya will also not be able to comment.

    Not just this project, but Uddhav Thackeray has obstructed the implementation of many other projects like Nanar, Jaitapur, Wadhwan Port and the Samruddhi Mahamarg. The moment Uddhav Thackeray assumed power, he almost got the Samruddhi Mahamarg consecrated, it will now be named after venerable Balasaheb Thackeray. The oil refining project in Nanar was expected to bring a huge investment of Rs 3.50 lakh crore in Maharashtra. The people of Konkan will never forget how the Penguin Sena obstructed the implementation of this project. This project would have created almost 5 lakh direct and indirect employment opportunities in Maharashtra. But Uddhavrao strongly opposed the project, as a result its construction got suspended. Although, efforts are now being made to bring this project back to Maharashtra, deputy chief minister clarified that it will be difficult to once again get the project in its previous form.

    Whenever any project is announced, Uddhavrao and his close aides begin to oppose it. Instead of resolving the shortcomings of any project through legal means, these sidekicks are more interested in suspending them, at least that is what comes across. Instead of trying to get projects like Vedanta – Foxconn, Saffron in Maharashtra at any cost, Uddhav Thackeray as the chief minister made sure that these projects do not come to Maharashtra, only because his terms and conditions were not fulfilled by the respective companies.

    Also, the central government announced funding of Rs. 65,000 crores for the Wadhwan Port project. This project was envisaged keeping in mind the over-utilisation and stress on the JNPT port. Uddhav Thackeray showed his anti-development mentality by opposing the construction of this port as well while being the chief minister of the state. This is nothing but disloyalty and treachery of Maharashtra. The only question now is how long will Maharashtra have to suffer from this treachery.

 (Article Pre-Published in Times of India –5 Dec. 2022)

 

 Keshav Upadhye, Chief Spokesperson