Former Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan today criticised the BJP-led government for bringing down the overall growth rate of the state.
Speaking in the Assembly during the discussion on state Budget, Chavan claimed that during 2013 to 2017, Maharashtra's growth rate came down to 7.8 per cent, while Gujarat (10 per cent), Madhya Pradesh (8.1 per cent) and Haryana (7.9 per cent) clocked higher average growth rates.
"The revenue deficit is estimated to be Rs 15,374 crore. This is the highest-ever revenue deficit recorded by the state government. It clearly indicates that the state failed in managing its income and spendings," he said.
The Centre's 'assistance subsidies' in 2015-16 were Rs 8,000 crore, which increased to Rs 10,794 crore in 2016-17, the Congress leader pointed out.
Economic surveys of the last few years are pointing out that number of factories in the state is on a decline, Chavan said.
There were 38,326 factories in the state in 2013, which came down to 34,769 in 2017. Which means in the last four years, 3,557 factories closed down, Chavan said.
"Since 2015-16, the industrial growth rate is on decline. The industrial growth rate in 2015-16 was 7.2 per cent which came down to 6.9 per cent in the next year. It further came down to 6.5 per cent in 2017-18. The rate was around 6.8 per cent during 2014-17. The other states such as Bihar (26.9 per cent), Chhattisgarh (16.7 per cent), Gujarat (15.2 per cent) and Haryana (9.7 per cent) have a higher growth rate," Chavan said.
The state government claimed to have signed 2,984 MoUs worth Rs 8 lakh crore in the Make In India programme in 2016. But the industry minister later stated that only 838 projects took off, Chavan said.
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