Mumbai, Feb 10 (IANS) Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Monday did not hold the District Annual Plan meetings for the financial year 2025-26 of these two districts.
After the announcement of NCP minister Aditi Tatkare as the Raigad district guardian minister and BJP minister Girish Mahajan as the Nashik district guardian minister in January, Shiv Sena took strong objection that led to the stay given by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on these appointments.
As a part of the preparations for the upcoming state budget, which is expected to be presented on March 10 in the legislature, Pawar has been holding a series of meetings with departments.
Pawar, who also holds the Finance Ministry portfolio, has also been meeting with district administration to discuss the annual plan for the fiscal year 2025-26.
On Monday, Ajit Pawar held meetings of the Konkan and Nasik divisions. However, the meetings of Raigad and Nasik were not held as both the districts do not have a guardian minister as a result of the ongoing rift between NCP and Shiv Sena.
Incidentally, Shiv Sena ministers Bharat Gogawale and Dada Bhuse have staked their claims over the guardian ministership of Raigad and Nasik districts respectively. Shiv Sena chief leader and Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has already said that there is nothing wrong in aspiring to become the guardian minister. Both, the NCP and Sena have said that they will not let go of the claim on this.
“The matter was discussed with the Chief Minister’s Office. As per the existing rule, if the district does not have a guardian minister, the divisional commissioner can represent the said district,” said a senior officer from the Finance Department.
The meetings to discuss District Annual Plans for Raigad and Nashik are now slated for Tuesday.
Apart from Raigad and Nasik, meetings for Thane and Mumbai City too had to be postponed after Deputy Chief Minister and Guardian Minister Eknath Shinde did not turn up for the meeting. Shinde also cancelled the planned review meeting of the state-run Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation on Monday.
Shinde heads the MSRDC which has been a nodal agency for a slew of road and highway projects including the 701 km Nagpur Mumbai Samruddhi Mahamarg.
He communicated that as he was not keeping well he could not attend the meeting.
“Ajit Pawar therefore decided to wait for Shinde and now these two meetings will also take place on Tuesday,” said the officer.
This is the third time in three weeks that Shinde skipped key meetings. Two weeks ago, he was not present at the Cabinet meeting. Last week, he remained absent from the war room meeting chaired by the Chief Minister.
In addition to these four districts, a meeting for the Ahilyanagar (Ahmadnagar) district has also not been held.
The officer hoped that the District Annual Plans for Raigad, Nashik, Thane, Mumbai City and Ahilyanagar (Ahmednagar) will be finally discussed at the meeting scheduled on Tuesday.
–IANS
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