We didn't promise toll-free Maharashtra: CM Devendra Fadnavis U-turn

In a seeming about turn, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis indicated that though the government wants to do away with toll at places where it was imposed unjustly, eradication of the levy on road users was not a stated promise in the BJP manifesto. 

He admitted that shutting down major toll projects was beset with stumbling blocks and legal hurdles. 

Fadnavis denied any rift with revenue minister Eknath Khadse or ally Shiv Sena and said 100 days were too short a period to evaluate a government's performance, adding the evaluation needed to be done on intention rather than work done. 

“Our manifesto never contained the promise to ensure a toll-free Maharashtra,” said Fadnavis on Saturday, adding, however, that they felt that tolls which were unjust should be removed.

“We are working on it, but there are many problems. In large toll projects, there is no buy-back clause. How can these toll projects be cancelled? We do not understand how such one-sided agreements were signed by the government and officials, as otherwise, this buy-back clause is contained (in the agreement),” said Fadnavis. 

“The toll-free Maharashtra promise was never mentioned in our manifesto but still we are on the way to ensure it,” he iterated. 

Incidentally, senior BJP leader and deceased union minister Gopinath Munde had promised to make Maharashtra toll-free if the party came to power in the state. However, other voices like that of union transport minister Nitin Gadkari, who was seen as Munde's adversary in the BJP, had claimed that this would be difficult to implement economically. 

“For the evaluation of any government, 100 days is too short a timeframe. The assessment of these 100 days must be based on the intention rather than the work done,” said Fadnavis, adding that they had sped up the decision-making process. 

He criticised the erstwhile Congress-NCP government as one beset with dushashan (bad governance), where the state faced a retreat in all sectors due to “policy paralysis, decision paralysis, implementation paralysis.” 

The state government has also written to the Archaeological Survey of India, proposing that they work jointly on restoration of forts of warrior-king Chhatrapati Shivaji. The state is willing to part with funds for this purpose and wants work on some forts to be undertaken as models. 

Fadnavis listed measures like decentralisation of powers, e-governance and digitisation initiatives in the revenue department, putting up in the public domain the draft of the sunshine Maharashtra Guarantee of Public Services Bill, 2015, which will penalize government officials who drag their feet on providing services or facilities to citizens in the stipulated time period, as the government's achievements. 

This also includes establishment of 45 mobile forensic units (one each for every district and police commissionerate), the telemedicine project and the watershed management project to alleviate drought. 

He added that though the state had scrapped the river regulation zone policy, which had led to investments in zero discharge industries being affected, they would abide by the national policy in this regard while granting locational clearances for industries. 

Fadnavis said that unlike in the past, they would not seek to lower the state's budgetary deficit by reducing the capital expenditure on projects, but instead hike resource mobilisation.