PUNE: Deputy chief minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis, in a speech to industrialists of the region at a Mahratta Chamber of Commerce, Industries, and Agriculture (MCCIA) event, indirectly criticised the former Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government for "discouraging" investment in the state, while commenting on the move of the upcoming Vedanta-Foxconn project to Gujarat. "The project was never in Maharashtra, but it should have come to Maharashtra. There were two-and-a-half years of instability in the state, caused by incidents like the state home minister being in jail, a former police commissioner absconding, and more, all of which did not make investors want to come here. Our government is focusing on attracting investment now - our state has the culture of industry and ecosystem for industries to grow," Fadnavis said. Fadnavis also spoke about infrastructural needs of the city, such as the ring road and the airport, adding that the operationalisation of Navi Mumbai airport will bring some relief to residents of Pune. He also promised to crack down on 'fake' mathadi workers' unions, as well as improve on connectivity issues in MIDCs, adding that the Union government is working on widening roads in those areas.
Pune: Deputy chief minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis, in a speech to industrialists of the region at a Mahratta Chamber of Commerce, Industries, and Agriculture (MCCIA) event, indirectly criticised the former Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government for “discouraging” investment in the state, while commenting on the move of the upcoming Vedanta-Foxconn project to Gujarat. “The project was never in Maharashtra, but it should have come to Maharashtra. There were two-and-a-half years of instability in the state, caused by incidents like the state home minister being in jail, a former police commissioner absconding, and more, all of which did not make investors want to come here. Our government is focusing on attracting investment now — our state has the culture of industry and ecosystem for industries to grow,” Fadnavis said. Fadnavis also spoke about infrastructural needs of the city, such as the ring road and the airport, adding that the operationalisation of Navi Mumbai airport will bring some relief to residents of Pune. He also promised to crack down on ‘fake’ mathadi workers’ unions, as well as improve on connectivity issues in MIDCs, adding that the Union government is working on widening roads in those areas.
MUMBAI: Amid trading of charges between Shiv Sena and the Shinde-Fadnavis government over exit of the Vedanta-Foxconn project from the state, Adani group chairman Gautam Adani met Uddhav Thackeray at Matoshree on Wednesday. While details of the discussion could not be confirmed, Sena sources said the meeting lasted for over 40 minutes and a range of topics, from politics to industrial investment in the state, could have been discussed.
The meeting between Gautam Adani and Uddhav Thackeray took place today, an official said. (FILE)Mumbai: Industrialist Gautam Adani met former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray in Mumbai on Wednesday."The meeting took place today," an official said but declined to elaborate on what transpired between the Adani Group chairman and the Shiv Sena president.Mr Thackeray stepped down as Chief Minister after senior Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde led a revolt against his leadership and walked away with 39 party legislators in June.PromotedListen to the latest songs, only on JioSaavn.comMr Shinde took over as Chief Minister on June 30. The two rival Shiv Sena camps are locked in a legal battle over the party symbol and defection of rebel legislators.(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani met former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray at the latter’s residence in Mumbai on Wednesday. The meeting is said to have taken place at Matoshree at around 3 pm. It is unclear what transpired during the meeting. Details of the same have not been made public yet.This comes at a time when Chief Minister Eknath Shinde is in Delhi along with three ministers, including Industries Minister Uday Samant, Ports Minister Dadaji Bhuse, and Horticulture Minister Sandipan Bhumare. On Wednesday evening, the Maharashtra delegation will meet Union Minister Nitin Gadkari regarding work on highways in Maharashtra.According to sources within the Shinde camp, Samant has been asked to stay in Delhi and a few developments regarding Maharashtra’s politics may take place at night. “There is likely to be a big announcement from Delhi today evening,” said a senior Maharashtra minister.The two Shiv Sena factions, led by Thackeray and Eknath Shinde, have been vying for the right to hold the Dussehra rally at the Shivaji Park ground at the same time. Both the factions also applied for different Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) exhibition grounds for the Dussehra rally as a back-up plan.
MUMBAI: A senior bureaucrat said the entire land allotment for 191 industrial projects was transparent and online, so there was no scope for illegality. Only eligible applicants were allotted land, he added. In addition, for the 335 proposals worth Rs 15,000 crore pending with MIDC, the bureaucrat said that in-principle approval has been granted and it is likely that the land allotment committee will meet in the ensuing week to clear the allotment. "There was no stay on these 335 projects on 1,700 acres of land. However, in view of the change of political guard, it was suggested to go slow. Now, in-principle approval has been granted and we expect the actual process to begin within a week," he said. The bureaucrat clarified that most of the projects are cleared at the MIDC level, but those involving investment of Rs 1,500 crore (mega projects) and Rs 4,000 crore (ultra-mega projects) are referred to the government, particularly for incentives. The bureaucrat said in view of criticism of the government and the flak following the shifting of the Foxconn project to Gujarat, the industries department will fast-track all pending projects on top priority.
MUMBAI: In view of the geographical situation in Kolhapur's Radhanagari area, CM Eknath Shinde on Thursday lifted the stay on the Rs 58 crore expenditure for nine irrigation works. New tenders will be floated for the irrigation schemes under Maharashtra Krishna Valley Development Corporation, said officials. "A time-bound programme will be undertaken to provide funds for survey works of 15 sub-irrigation schemes in Radhanagari constituency. In the review meet, it was decided to pay Rs 45 crore for immediate repair of Megholi dam in Bhudargad taluka. Shinde also instructed to survey and submit remaining Rs 100 crore for administrative nod on water resources department proposals," a statement said. The CM also announced a leopard safari project in Ambegaon, Junnar taluka.
Maharashtra Congress on Thursday alleged that the Vedanta-Foxconn project has been shifted to Gujarat under pressure from the central government even as the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government had offered a better package to the company to set up the plant. The project has been moved to Dholera in Gujarat, although it is an "inconvenient" place as compared to Talegaon near Pune, where it was earlier planned to be set up, state Congress general secretary Sachin Sawant claimed in a statement, adding that the move will harm the country as there is a possibility of the project getting stalled. A blame-game has begun in Maharashtra following the announcement two days ago that the joint venture semiconductor project of the Indian conglomerate Vedanta and Taiwanese electronics giant Foxconn, proposed to be set up near Pune earlier, will come up in Gujarat. "Even as the previous MVA government's offer for a better package than Gujarat, the Vedanta Foxconn project has gone to Dholera under pressure from the central government. Since Dholera is an inconvenient place, many companies, including ISMC Digital, which proposed manufacturing semiconductors just like Vedanta-Foxconn have chosen to withdraw from the same place," he said. Moving the Vedanta-Foxconn semiconductor project to Dholera will not only harm Maharashtra, but also the country, Sawant alleged. The Congress leader claimed that as per the internal report of Vedanta company, Talegaon in Maharashtra was the suitable place for this semiconductor project. A comparative study of both Talegaon and Dholera was conducted, and Dholera was given less preference citing various reasons like lack of water supply, skilled labours, electronics manufacturing ecosystem, absence of supply chain vendors and secondary manufacturers and also marshy land, he said. "Even though Maharashtra had offered many concessions, including more capital subsidy than Gujarat, the decision to move the project to Dholera has been made only under the pressure of the central government," Sawant alleged. When Narendra Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat, he had announced many non-feasible projects in his state and wasted thousands of crores of rupees from the taxpayer's money, he claimed. "Recently, three companies had applied when a proposal was invited for semiconductor manufacturing with an estimated investment of USD 10 billion in the country. One of them, ISMC Digital, was supposed to come up at Dholera. But this company has fled Dholera due to lack of facilities and water availability. Interestingly, the Gujarat government had entered into an MoU with this company," Sawant said. According to him, Jiophone, a joint project of Google and Reliance, left Dholera and moved to Tirupati. Earlier, Lockheed Martin Corporation withdrew from the solar battery project. Hindustan Construction Company had entered into an MoU to build a waterfront city worth Rs 40,000 crore at Dholera. But after paying some money for the place, it withdrew. Lashing out at the Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government for losing the project, Sawant said it would have provided employment to the people of Maharashtra and income to the country. "There is a possibility now that project would be stalled for a long time due to the stubborn attitude of the central government. Just like Dholera, GIFT City project (in Gujarat) was also stalled. International Financial Services Centre, which was to come in Maharashtra was moved there as soon as Modi government came to power. The financial centre would have brought a huge investment to Maharashtra benefitting all. But the central government did not allow it to happen," the Congress leader alleged. When Modi was the chief minister, his government forced the Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation to take Rs 10,000 crore worth of bonds, showing that it had found gas reserves. No gas was found ultimately and the company became debt-ridden. Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) was forced to buy GSPC by the Modi government, he said. "PM Modi has claimed to have promised Maharashtra a bigger project than Foxconn, but the state does not need his grace for such a big project," Sawant said. "Maharashtra has always remained number one in the field of industry on its own merits. It is unfortunate that BJP leaders are weakening the state to fulfil Modi's dream of making Gujarat successful by snatching projects from Maharashtra," Sawant said.
Mumbai BJP president Ashish Shelar has demanded an inquiry by a retired judge to ascertain the role of the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi government in the deal with Vedanta-Foxconn falling through. “What efforts did the Aghadi government make to bring this project to Maharashtra?” he asked on Wednesday, requesting Chief Minister Eknath Shinde to get the matter investigated through a retired judge.Holding MVA responsible for letting the project relocate to Gujarat, Shelar said, “Then Industries minister Subash Desai (MVA) government owes an explanation as to what they did to retain the project.” Shelar said Shinde and his deputy Devendra Fadnavis had gone all out in pursuing the project since July 2022. He said, “On July 26, a delegation under the managing director of Vedanta Global, Arya Hebbar, met the CM and Deputy CM and gave a presentation on the project”…”the delegation said they were keen to invest in Talegaon, Pune due to the availability of skilled manpower, industry-friendly environment, connectivity to Mumbai and JNPT ports, strong value chain, and modern infrastructure.”TIMELINEAugust 2015: BJP-Shiv Sena govt headed by Devendra Fadnavis announces Foxconn plan to invest in MaharashtraOctober 2016: Fadnavis says Foxconn discussing issues it faces with CentreOctober 2017: Indo-China row delayes project, says FadnavisJuly 2018: Meetings continue between Foxconn and state officials over land requirementJanuary 2020: Industries minister Subhash Desai announces that deal with Foxconn cancelled due to company’s internal disputes with Apple IncJanuary 2022: Minister Aaditya Thackeray and NCP MP Praful Patel hold virtual meeting with Anil Agarwal, chairman of Vedanta Resources Limited, to bring projects like semiconductor and display FAB to stateMay 2022: Desai and Aaditya meet Agarwal at World Economic Forum in DavosJuly 2022: Delegation of Vedanta-Foxconn meets CM Eknath Shinde and Deputy CM Fadnavis. Govt issues press release about project with an investment of Rs 1.54 lakh crore. Also mentioned is that executives of Vedanta-Foxconn are satisfied with the project site proposed at Talegaon Phase IVSeptember 5, 2022: Agarwal meets Prime Minister Narendra Modi, says that along with energy security for India, Vedanta FAB and semiconductor project discussedSeptember 13, 2022: Vedanta-Foxconn signs MoU with Gujarat govt
Pune: Nationalist Congress Party MP Supriya Sule on Wednesday alleged that Gujarat bagging a mega Vedanta-Foxconn semi-conductor plant was part of a "conspiracy" to reduce Maharashtra's importance. The Union government was consistently taking steps to "demean" Maharashtra, she claimed. The Lok Sabha member from Baramati said she was not against Gujarat getting the big-ticket project, but it happened after a Memorandum of Understanding for the same had been signed with the Maharashtra government. "It is part of a larger conspiracy to bring down the importance of Maharashtra, the only state in the country poised to become a trillion dollar economy," she told reporters here. "I am making these allegations consciously...the Union government is consistently taking steps to demean Maharashtra. There will be a long-term setback for Maharashtra as we continue to lose more and more mega investment projects," she said. Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis should stop their "hospitality tours" and focus on the issue of unemployment, Sule said. The CM and his deputy were free to go and visit all the Ganesh pandals and celebrate everything but Maharashtra needed a focused chief minister, she added, in a dig at Shinde and Fadnavis's visits to Ganesh pandals during the recent Ganesh festival."If the need be, they should have two CMs, one can attend 'yatras' and the other can run the state," she further said. This was not the time for blame game and Shinde and Fadnavis should hold an all-party meeting over these issues, she added.
