CM Shinde takes on Uddhav Thackeray over ‘contractual CM’ remark, says he has ‘undertaken contract’ to make Maharashtra prosperous

@the_news_21

Mumbai: Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Thursday lashed out at Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray for calling him a “contractual chief minister” saying that he will work for the poor, downtrodden, farmers’ and all sections of the society. He said he has taken a ‘contract’ to make the state prosperous, help the poor and carry forward late Sena chief Balasaheb Thackeray’s ideology of Hindutva.

Replying to the debate raised on the final week proposal on the last day of the monsoon session of the state legislature in the state legislative assembly, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, however said, he will never indulge in making below the belt rebuttals.

He also raised strong objections to being called a “betrayer”. Defending his decision to form an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to form the government in the state, the chief minister said he has not betrayed the ideology of late Shiv Sena chief Balasaheb Thackeray. He however said that he severed ties with those who did not follow the ideology of the late Sena patriarch.

Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said that the cost of the houses to be built for the police personnel in the BDD chawls has been brought down to 15 lakh rupees from the earlier 20-25 lakh rupees.

Commenting upon the demand for providing relief to the farmers’, the Chief Minister assured that all necessary help will be provided to them from September onwards.

Speaking on boosting infrastructure projects in the state, he said, nearly 5 thousand Kilometres of Expressways have been planned in different parts of the state. On the issue of the Metro Car shed in Aarey, he said that the car shed will help bring down 2 lakh 61 thousand metric tonnes of Carbon-dioxide level.

With an eye on the upcoming Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) election, the chief minister said that he has directed the civic chief not to hike the property tax till next one year. The demand to defer the decision to hike property tax was made by several BJP leaders from Mumbai to the chief minister.