STATE RANKS BEHIND JHARKHAND IN ease-of-doing-biz, Oppn blames Sena-BJP
The Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) have alleged that poor coordination between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Shiv Sena, coupled with corruption, has led to Maharashtra's slide in the ease-of-doing business rankings. Targeting the Devendra Fadnavis-led government, Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) president Ashok Chavan asked in Marathi, "Kuthe neun thewala Maharashtra majha (where have they taken my Maharashtra)?"
Notably, the BJP had used the same tagline to target the previous Prithviraj Chavanled government ahead of the 2014 state assembly polls. States which had earlier lagged behind Maharashtra have moved ahead of it, Chavan pointed out. "Jharkhand (ranked fourth in the list) has surpassed Maharashtra, which was number one during our regimes. This is all because of poor co-ordination between the BJP and the Shiv Sena," Chavan said.
NCP spokesman Nawab Malik alleged that investors were afraid of doing business in the state due to the "rise in corruption". He said the present ranking reflects the reality in Maharashtra after the World Bank had rated Mumbai, the country's financial capital, better on the scale last year.
Malik claimed the World Bank's ranking was based on "wrong inputs" submitted to it. "The truth is coming out now. The government's poor planning in terms of bringing investment here has resulted in this situation. Thriving corruption under their watch has also made investors afraid of investing here," he said.
BJP spokesperson Keshav Upadhye said, "The Reserve Bank of India and National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) have already declared that Maharashtra has fetched the highest investment of all states. Opposition should have faith in RBI and NITI Aayog, as their results are based on facts and factuals".
According to the latest rankings published by the central government's Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) for fiscal 2016-17, Maharashtra slipped to the 13th position from 10th position, owing to a slump in its score from the earlier 92.86 to 92.71. DIPP has ranked the sibling states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana as first and second, respectively, in its list.