Mumbai, Mar 6: Re-empting an Opposition attack during the Budget session of the legislature next week, the Maharashtra government on Saturday said it has formed a high-powered committee headed by Chief Secretary Swadhi Kshatriya to ensure that the Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) signed during the Make In India Week fructify.
The panel will have sub-committees to monitor and report the progress on the MoUs signed. More than 2,500 MoUs were signed by Maharashtra during the Make In India Week held in Mumbai last month. The sub-committees and the principal secretaries of the departments concerned will monitor the progress on small MoUs, while the rest will be reviewed and monitored by the mother committee.
The State had signed 2,594 MoUs worth Rs 7.94 lakh crore, with an employment generation potential for over 30 lakh people. Of these, 2,097 MoUs were inked with Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and large industries and 20 MoUs were signed in the skill development sector. The rest were spread across sectors, including manufacturing, textiles, food processing, auto and auto components, defence, energy, industrial infrastructure, housing, railways, ports, and agriculture.
The formation of the committee was announced days after the Opposition raised serious questions on the lack of transparency of the MoUs. NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik had alleged that one MoU with Maharashtra Chamber of Housing Industry (MCHI) on affordable housing was inked by the government only to inflate the investment numbers.
He said the Congress-NCP government headed by Ashok Chavan had inked a similar MoU with MCHI in 2010 for constructing 5.69 lakh affordable houses in five years in Mumbai Metropolitan Region, but the MoU lapsed in February 2015 without a single house being built. “The value of this MoU is Rs 1.10 lakh crore, which in turn means that around 15 per cent of the Rs 8 lakh crore investment announced by the Chief Minister is fake,” he had alleged on Thursday, warning that the NCP will take up the issue when the budget session of legislature opens on March 9.
State Industries Minister Subhash Desai on Friday said that the government would form a task force to ensure that at least 75 to 80 per cent of the MoUs fructify as actual investments. Speaking at a CII function, Desai told reporters that the government was aware that MoUs often remain on paper and do not get converted into actual investments. “Therefore, the government was planning to set up a task force to monitor and ensure that the MoUs translate into actual investments,” he said.
The panel will have sub-committees to monitor and report the progress on the MoUs signed.