CM giving in to political pressure

Those days are past when it seemed difficult to convince or force Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan to change his stand on issues Things have changed since he first took over in November 2010 2014 has showed us a mellowed down CM who is giving in to political compulsions and doing away with his socalled lsquostubbornnessrsquo This could be due to the upcoming elections to the Lok Sabha and later in October to the state assemblyBut the transformation shouldnrsquot have come with a political tiff between the Congress and the NCP On January 2 the CM was on the receiving end of some harsh words by his coalition partner NCP when the Deputy CM Ajit Pawar threatened to quit the government Such was the impact of Pawarrsquos aggressiveness that four cabinet meetings were lined up within a span of 13 days when just one meeting would take place otherwise The Democratic Front took almost 30 decisions in these meetings which is also a record of sortsAlmost all decisions are aimed at appeasing voters but are bad for inclusive growth of the state Take for example the energy sector in Maharashtra Though the demand for power supply has gone up phenomenally there has hardly been any significant addition to the generation capacity for many years Nothing visible has happened in the sectors of hydropower thermal power or captive power generation to fulfill the growing demand The political class is unwilling to let the agriculture sector free of its crutches for further growth Political leadership is not encouraging farmers to pay power bills nor does it allow the state power utilities to work on a professional basisInstead to ride on popularity wave similar to the Aam Aadmi Party government in Delhi the state has announced a 20 per cent cut in power charges This amount will be reimbursed to Mahavitaran It means taxpayersrsquo money will be used for cross subsidy Chavan who was unwilling to take on unwanted financial burdens in the past had to give in He along with his colleagues may not answer a crucial question ndash what happened to the CongressNCP governmentrsquos resolve to make power utilities selfsufficient within five years after the utilities were restructured by dissolving the Maharashtra State Electricity Board MSEB in 2005At a time when the state is going through a financial crisis yet another decision will add an additional burden of Rs 200 crore per month apart from the power bill of Rs 606 crore Rs 200 crore will be spent on distribution of food grains at cheaper rates to the 177crore population excluded from the benefits of the food security programmeAll these decisions are populist with an eye on the approaching elections and are unhealthy for the state economy at large But for the CM who was giving sleepless nights to the NCP with his tough posture on certain issues it is as a huge setback One of the decisions that he was withholding for the last two years was his approval for a rise in costs of some irrigation projects The NCP was quite aggressive on the issue and had their way finallyIt was also presumed that Chavan was not someone who would entertain pressure tactics But there is a long list to prove this wrong First is his decision to take on a financial burden of Rs 3500 crore which will facilitate the allocation of Rs 10 crore each to assembly constituencies represented by the ruling partyrsquos legislators Each legislator will recommend a list of projects of his choice to spend the amount Rs 23 crore were sanctioned for constituencies represented by opposition parties after they protested It is common knowledge that this money is mostly spent on basic facilities such as roads and sanitation where contractors play a major roleSecondly the CM is also sitting on a file to cancel the allotment of 46 MHADA plots in Mumbai for over six months even though it has been proved that these plots allotted to influential political leaders have changed hands illegally or remained unutilised for years He is also taking time to initiate action against the 23 builders who have refused to hand over 192 flats to the state government under the Urban Land Ceiling Regulation ActBesides this MHADA which works under his direct control has been slow in recovering builtup area and penalties to the tune of crores of rupees from builders who have executed redevelopment projects of MHADA buildings Political leaders are said to be exerting pressure to stall action against builders involved in these scamsIn short a lot has changed now and pure politics has forced Chavan to change his waysmdash The writer is Political Editor MiD DAY