Congress is planning to protest across the state to highlight the failure of Modi government’s three year reign on May 26 the same day when the latter will complete three years in office. Mumbai Congress president Sanjay Nirupam said that Congress will hold dharna across Mumbai and other parts of the state to protest against the government’s decision to levy surcharge on petrol and poor governance. According to him, the government has failed to generate employment and has not been able to control inflation and farmer suicides.
He said, “The government is involved in the tur dal scam worth Rs 300 crore. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has failed to lead the state properly and lacks direction. He has yet to give a clarification about the tur dal procurement. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had urged farmers to increase the production of tur dal and promised to purchase the output. Accordingly, farmers had enhanced the production of tur dal but the government didn’t come forward to procure the tur dal. The chief minister is hand in glove with the traders hence he has failed to order for a probe into this scam.”
“The government might be going ahead with the construction of the Mumbai-Nagpur expressway but scam is occurring in this project too. The government had forcibly obtained land from farmers without paying them adequate compensation. Many leaders from Delhi and Maharashtra are involved in this scam. The cost of construction of the expressway is around Rs 27,000 crore,” added Nirupam.
MPCC president Ashok Chavan said, “There is lack of financial planning hence the government is trying to recover money by increasing surcharge on petrol. Instead of declaring drought, the government had imposed a surcharge of Rs 6 on petrol earlier. The rate of petrol in Maharashtra is the highest in the country. This despite the Centre reduced the petrol prices. The total surcharge on petrol is now Rs 11 and the state Congress will protest against this. At a time when petrol is becoming cheaper in the country it is has become expensive in Maharashtra which is unfair. Hence we will protest against the state’s decision to levy surcharge on petrol.”
A surcharge of two rupees has been imposed on the flyovers located in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Thane. Even though the government has recovered the toll cost it is continuing to levy this surcharge. The government also had incurred Rs 18 crores for publicity of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s statue.
“We don’t have any objections pertaining to the construction of the statue but why the government is going a spending spree? The Fadnavis government will organise Samvad Yatra after the conclusion of our Sanghursh Yatra. The government has failed to address the hardships faced by farmers and leader like Raosaheb Danve had mockery of farmers,” he added.
