Mumbai: In another shocker, the Shiv Sena said on Wednesday that Maharashtra has lost out the mega project of Bulk Drugs Park to adjoining Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh this month.
Sena ex-Ministers Aditya Thackeray and Subhash Desai told the media that earlier this month, a Central notification indicated that Maharashtra has forfeited the prestigious project.
Corroborating the claim, they said that the September 1 statement said: “Centre grants in-principle approval of three bulk drug parks in Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, and Andhra Pradesh. The three states to submit their detailed project report in next 90 days”, and added it was another move to make the country Atmanirbhar in bulk drugs.
The Sena duo said that Maharashtra is missing in the Centre’s statement implying that this state has lost out on the project, though it was vigorously pursued by the erstwhile Maha Vikas Aghadi government of Sena-Nationalist Congress Party-Congress.
This is the second big political-economic jolt to the state this month, after the Vedanta Group-Foxconn decided to shift its proposed Rs 2.06 lakh-crore project to Gujarat, sparking a major row in Maharashtra.
Aditya Thackeray said that the MVA government had reserved 5,000 acres of land in Raigad district for the Rs 30,000 crore Bulk Drug Park project which had the potential to create at least 75,000 jobs for locals.
The duo said that both the projects were planned to be implemented in Maharashtra “on merits”, but owing to the “current unconstitutional government in the state and its disinterest in the state’s development” – implying Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis – it has gone out.
Then CM Uddhav Thackeray had written a letter to the Centre proposing to set up the Bulk Drugs Park in Raigad while Desai had brought it up before the state cabinet, but now the Centre has asked Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh to start working on it, they pointed out.
Follow on Twitter | Posted by Sameer Khan | 
