MVA grills Shinde-Fadnavis govt. as ‘flight’ of mega projects continues from Maharashtra as French aircraft maker Safran moves base to Hyderabad

NCP MP Supriya Sule demands immediate all-party meeting on the flight of mega infra projects to other states 

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Mumbai: Following the migration of the Tata-Airbus C-295 military aircraft project to neighbouring Gujarat, the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) on Sunday lashed out at the ruling Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis government amidst reports of French multinational company Safran – which manufactures aircraft and rocket engines – allegedly moving its aircraft engine repair and maintenance project to Hyderabad from Nagpur. Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray-led (UBT) faction Shiv Sena Lok Sabha MP Arvind Sawant has demanded CM Eknath Shinde’s immediate resignation over the issue.  

The UBT faction leader claimed that Safran’s aircraft engine repair and maintenance project was to come up in Nagpur’s Multi-modal International Cargo Hub and Airport (MIHAN), but had now shifted to Hyderabad owing to administrative delays like land acquisition among other issues. 

Terming the current scenario “extremely serious” Sawant remarked, “The Safran project had a preliminary investment of Rs. 1,185 crores and could have helped provide hundreds of jobs. Despite MIHAN having a conducive atmosphere for businesses, how is it that these mega projects are moving out from there? It is especially surprising given that Air India already has an ongoing project involving maintenance and overhauling of aircraft…this proves that the Shinde-Fadnavis government does not have the capability to administer the State. The CM must resign immediately in order to let Maharashtra move forward.”

The former union minister further said that the much-touted ‘double engine growth’ being propagated by the BJP had come a cropper in Maharashtra where one of its engines was ‘punctured’.   

Nationalist Congress party (NCP) Lok Sabha MP from Baramati, Supriya Sule has demanded that Chief Minister Eknath Shinde immediately call an all-party meeting to discuss the flight of industry from the State. She further urged the ruling Balasahebanchi Sena (Shinde faction)- Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led government to stop finger-pointing over the loss of big-ticket projects and begin thinking in a statesmanlike manner for Maharashtra’s progress,

The NCP further remarked, “There are contradictory statements emanating from the State Industries Minister (Uday Samant) and the Chief Minister himself each time that the State is losing such a project.  Instead of pointing fingers, it is high time the government think about how to get future investments in the State. This is not a personal matter, but the question of Maharashtra’s development is at stake. The CM must call a special Assembly session to discuss this issue and the matter of declaring a ‘wet drought’ in the State. It does not matter how long this session lasts, but he must take all parties and MLAs into confidence.” 

Comparing the State government’s performance with the work done by senior BJP leader and Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, Sule called the latter a doer who did not “waste time in petty party politics” but always looked to the betterment of a particular State. “Nitin Gadkari is a doer. He is a responsible Minister who never waits for anyone and takes all parties together. As a result, no MP has ever spoken anything against him,” she added further.  

On Saturday, in a bid to counter the opposition, Industries Minister Uday Samant had claimed that Maharashtra had received investments to the tune of Rs. 25,368 crores for the development of ten projects ever since the Shinde-Fadnavis government came to power in June this year. The minister said these projects were expected to generate employment for 7,430 people while adding that the government would soon release a White Paper in this regard. 

These projects include Sinarmas Pulp and Paper Pvt Ltd with an investment of Rs 20,000 crore in Raigad district with a potential for creating 3,000 jobs; Maharashtra Seamless Ltd at Vilebhagad in Raigad with an investment of Rs. 375 crore and Varan Beverages in two phases at Supa in Ahmednagar district (Rs. 779.34 crore, jobs 450) among others. 

However, Supriya Sule refuted Industries Minister Uday Samant’s claims, pointing out that all these projects claimed by the Shinde-Fadnavis government were in fact the handiwork of the erstwhile MVA government. 

She further remarked, “All these projects are from the MVA government’s time… This (Samant’s claim) is laughable. It was NCP leader Aditi Tatkare, who, as the then guardian minister of Raigad, had done all the handholding required for the Sinarmas project. Likewise, Nilesh Lanke was MLA at Supa in Ahmednagar when the beverages project was secured. We have documents to prove our claims which the Shinde government is glibly appropriating as theirs.” Sule added that the flight of mega projects from Maharashtra was a trend that had never happened in the past and had only started in the past two months. 

Following the alleged ‘loss’ of the Safran project, Uddhav camp leader Aaditya Thackeray, in a tweet, said that investors had lost all faith in the State’s political stability. 

Likewise, Congressman Balasaheb Thorat censured the ruling government for its failure to retain investment in the State, dubbing the trend that had started with Vedanta-Foxconn as “extremely unfortunate.” Congress leader from Kolhapur Satej Patil wondered whether this was some “conspiracy” to remove livelihoods and jobs from Maharashtra and “give them to a favoured State.” 

Since the last month, the ruling government has come under heavy flak from the opposition parties for allegedly losing four mega projects, including the Rs. 22,000 crore Tata-Airbus project (for manufacturing military transport aircraft) and the Rs. 1.5 lakh crore Vedanta-Foxconn project, both of which have moved to Gujarat.