Mumbai: Facing criticism over losing major projects to Gujarat in the last few months, industries minister Uday Samant on Wednesday announced that a committee headed by a retired judge will be formed to investigate the reason behind the projects going out of Maharashtra.
The announcement came a day after Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) leader Aaditya Thackeray reiterated his challenge for an open debate with chief minister Eknath Shinde on projects such as Vedanta-Foxconn choosing Gujarat over Maharashtra.
The probe will be in addition to a white paper to be released by the government on investments that came to the state during the tenure of the previous government led by Uddhav Thackeray.
“The committee will be asked to find out reasons behind the projects moving out of the state and submit its report in the next one or two months,” Samant said.
The controversy started after the ₹1.54-lakh crore Vedanta-Foxconn semiconductor project went to the neighbouring state. Soon other major projects like ₹5,000-crore bulk drug park, ₹424-crore medical device park and ₹22,000-crore Tata-Airbus project shifted to Gujarat, which kicked up a row as a few opposition leaders linked the development with the upcoming Gujarat assembly elections.
On Tuesday, Aaditya also claimed that days before Vedanta announced shifting of the project to the neighbouring state, the Shinde-Fadnavis government in September had written to Anil Agrawal, chairman Vedanta, inviting him to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for setting up the Vedanta-Foxconn semiconductor plant in the state.
“The letter is a proof that all talks were finalised and the next step was to sign the MoU. It indicates that the government was lying that the project went out of the state owing to the failure of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government,” he claimed.
Interestingly, BJP Mumbai chief Ashish Shelar in September demanded a probe by a retired judge to investigate the MVA government’s role in the Vedanta-Foxconn not coming to Maharashtra. The demand was made after the Shinde-Fadnavis government was cornered by the opposition parties on the issue.
