State bureaucracy still not fully cooperating: Fadnavis

Nagpur: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis today said the state bureaucracy was not fully co-operating with the new government and this was posing a hurdle in implementing policies.

The government has faced stiff resistance from the bureaucracy for quite some time and action has been initiated against about 800 bureaucrats. Now, they have fallen in-line with the government, he said.

“About 70 per cent of the state’s higher bureaucracy has now mended their style of functioning and are following the state government while remaining are still defiant,” Fadnavis said.

Among the lower bureaucracy, the situation was still far from better. About 50 per cent (bureaucrats) were still reluctant to implement the policies and programmes of the BJP-Shiv Sena government for last one year, Fadnavis said at a ‘Meet the Press’ programme here.

Therefore, the state government has decided to act tough and initiated action against 800 bureaucrats by placing them under suspension and has dismissed 50 officers.

Similarly, criminal proceedings have been initiated against 300 bureaucrats, he said.

Fadnavis, who completed one-year in office yesterday, said the ‘Jalyukta Shivar’ water conservation campaign has been the most successful project during the one-year rule of his state government.

He credited public participation for the success of the project and said a huge water storage has been created in rural areas to overcome water scarcity and drought situation.

The Maharashtra CM also said a Mumbai-Nagpur Communication Expressway of 800 kms with access control, worth Rs 30,000 crores, will soon be a reality. A detailed project report(DPR) will be ready within two months and the actual work will commence in early 2016.

On industrial development, the Chief Minister said the Aerospace project of Anil Ambani-led Reliance group, which will manufacture helicopters, will soon start working on it.

They are likely to perform a ‘bhoomi pujan’ in near future, he added.

PTI