Maha CM To Meet Shah For Funds, Hitches in Cabinet Formation

Mumbai: Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s plan to fly down to New Delhi Wednesday evening was cancelled at the last moment on a day his twoman council of ministers (comprising him and deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis) sanctioned a slew of highcost proposals for farmers, irrigation and power projects that would be difficult to fund without support from the Union Government.


Efforts to seek information from the CMO regarding the sudden cancellation of Shinde’s trip to New Delhi did not elicit a response till the time of going to press. “CM Shinde’s meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah would have undoubtedly included discussions on the pending expansion of the cabinet of ministers in Maharashtra, over challenges of accommodating all aspirants particularly the independent MLAs. However, the main course of discussions are expected to dwell around the huge funding that Shinde’s government will require in the coming days from the Union Government to execute the big ticket projects being launched left, right and centre,” according to a source close to the development. The Shinde led and BJP backed government today, for instance, announced an incen- tive scheme for farmers that could possibly benefit 13.85 lakh farmers, who regularly cleared their outstanding crop loans for any two of the last four fiscal years (between 2017-2018 and 2020- 2021) as per the government’s estimation. Each such eligible agriculturist stands to gain a maximum of Rs 50,000 as incentive from the government which would need Central Government funding to make this possible.

A Rs 20,000 crore refurbishment of Mumbai city’s local rail network making it fully air-conditioned is also proposed by 2023. Similarly, Wednesday’s cabinet meeting also cleared two proposals of around Rs 40,000 crore in infrastructure bolstering for the state’s Power Distribution Company and a further Rs 3,461 crore for the Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking. According to the source, the Shah meeting, which deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis was not scheduled to attend, was primarily an outreach to the Centre by the Maharashtra CM seeking specific guidelines and information on how the massive funding for infrastructure projects set to unveiled in a blitzkrieg format would be undertaken through the assistance of New Delhi. “Of course, the pending cabinet expansion would also have been discussed at the meeting but, as we know there is a major discontent brewing among the Shinde led faction of MLAs (including 40 rebel Shiv Sena and 10 independent MLAs). The BJP experiences no such turbulence despite having a 115 strong MLAs grouping (including 9 independents) as it is a structured political formation with strict disciplinary functioning.”