Maharashtra: Eknath Shinde govt issued 751 GRs in one month

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The Maharashtra government has issued 751 government resolutions (GRs) ever since Eknath Shinde took over as chief minister on June 30, and over a hundred of these orders are related to the health department alone.

These resolutions are uploaded on the government’s official website.

A GR is essentially an approval order sanctioning release of funds for development related works.

In June this year, soon after a rebellion broke out in the then ruling Shiv Sena, the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government headed by Sena president Uddhav Thackeray had issued 182 GRs in just four days. The state departments – mostly controlled by the Sena’s ruling allies Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress – had then issued these orders for the release of funds worth thousands of crores for various development-related works.

However, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which was in the opposition at that time, had objected to this “rush of GRs” by the MVA government.

But now, the government led by Shinde, in which senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis is his deputy, has issued 751 GRs in a span of one month. At present, Shinde and Fadnavis are the only two members in the state cabinet.

Only the chief minister has the right to take decisions as deputy CM Fadnavis is a minister without a portfolio.

The GRs issued by the Shinde-Fadnavis government include those related to additional loan for Metro-3 line, sanctioning of funds worth Rs 52 lakh for installing a statue of late leader Balasaheb Desai, whose grandson Shambhuraj Desai, is in the Shinde camp.

Maximum number of 104 GRs have been issued by the public health department and 24 by the medical education department.

These decisions will help the administration to carry out work, an official of the state health department said.

“When there is a dedicated minister for a particular department, he or she can take a regular review of the execution of a decision. If there are some challenges in the implantation of a GR, it can be rectified and a new order/GR can be issued in a short time. Now, as there are only two ministers to take a review, the rectification will take much longer,” he said.

During the previous MVA government, the departments mostly headed by NCP and Congress had issued as many as 182 government resolutions (GRs) between June 20 and 23, while on June 17, they had passed 107 GRs.

Praveen Darekar, a BJP leader and former leader of opposition in the Legislative Council had criticised the MVA government saying that it was “unethical” on its part to issue so many orders in a short span.

The rebellion by Shinde against the Sena leadership had become public on June 21 morning. Sources said that since the then ruling allies (NCP and Congress) had sensed what was coming, the departments controlled by these parties had gone on a spree to issue the GRs.