Subsidised weddings in state government's poll-sop kitty

Dented by the Aam Aadmi Partyrsquos unconventional politics and popup populism in Delhi Congress is now trying to do some influence peddling of its own The party that holds the reins of the Maharashtra government with ally NCP has decided to provide Rs 6 crore to depositors of primary cooperative credit societies to aid women of lsquomarriageable agersquoSources say Prithviraj Chavan kept his NCP cabinet colleagues in the dark about the agenda of yesterdayrsquos meeting so the alliance partner could not claim credit for the sops File picThe Democratic Front government appears to be on its toes as within a span of two weeks the state cabinet has had a series of meetings and taken close to two dozen decisions Even then the Prithviraj Chavanled cabinet was not satisfied and ignoring severe financial constraints it decided to offer Rs 7272 crore as concessions in power tariff to consumers of various categoriesMost surprisingly the subject of power subsidy was not on the cabinet agenda when it was finalised on Saturday and Sunday Both deputy CM Ajit Pawar who is incharge of the energy department and industries minister Narayan Rane who headed a cabinet subcommittee to reduce power tariff were under the impression that the proposal was not going to figure in yesterdayrsquos cabinet convocationWhile briefing his party ministers in a separate gathering on Monday morning Pawar informed them that the CM had told him the proposal was not going to come up during the meeting and no one should raise any queries On the other hand Rane who is unwell decided to skip the cabinet meeting after learning that the subject of power tariff was not on the agendaBut Chavan surprised his cabinet colleagues particularly those from NCP by asking Ajoy Mehta managing director of MahaVitaran and incharge secretary of energy department to make a presentation And the decision was taken even as it was argued that the exchequer would have to bear an additional burden of Rs 600 croreEven if there were financial constraints the government could take a loan to pay this amount to MahaVitaran the cabinet argued The state can avail a loan of up to 26 per cent of its gross domestic product GDP and currently the amount of alreadyacquired loan which is approximately Rs 270 lakh crore accounts for about 17 per cent the cabinet was said to be informedAccording to sources the finance department officials raised several queries over the financial management But the 20 per cent relief in power bills offered to industrial domestic commercial and agricultural consumers will be offered for 10 months ndash that is up to October this year when the state will get a new governmentThe interestfree loan of Rs 6 crore offered to 70 primary cooperative credit societies across four districts of the state is clearly another poll sop The amount is being made available exclusively for the repayment of deposits to families where a woman has reached lsquomarriageable agersquoThe decision was taken despite some strong observations by the state finance department including that marriage of girls was a sentimental issue for the parents and the government should not concern itself with it Even the state chief secretary is said to have opposed the decision but it was approved anyway According to sources the decision will currently benefit one woman from Kolhapur 1658 from Jalgaon 39 from Wardha and four from Thane