Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday said the report by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), which apparently showed that Maharashtra had surged ahead of Gujarat and Karnataka in attracting foreign direct investment (FDI), had silenced the Opposition.
In response, senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and Leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly Ajit Pawar said that big ticket projects exceeding ₹1.5 lakh crore had allegedly gone out of Maharashtra, while urging the ruling Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis Government to come out with its promised White Paper on industrial investments in the State.
The Maharashtra Government on Tuesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the National Hydro Power Corporation (NHPC) and Torrent Power to generate 13,050 MW power through a Hydro Pumped Storage Project (HPSP).
Speaking to reporters in Mumbai after the signing of the MoU, Mr. Fadnavis said the project was expected to attract an investment of around ₹71,000 crore and is likely to generate 30,000 jobs, while remarking that it was a historic occasion and that the State was scaling new heights in renewable energy.
“Investment is coming into Maharashtra in a big way. Yesterday [June 5], in the figures given by the DIPP report, FDI figures have been announced. Maharashtra has emerged as the number 1 State in attracting FDI, drawing 29% investment, beating Gujarat (17%) and Karnataka (24%),” Mr. Fadnavis said.
In a thinly-veiled jibe at erstwhile Maha Vikas Agadhi (MVA) Government led by former CM Uddhav Thackeray, Mr. Fadnavis said that in 2020-21, Gujarat was number one in attracting FDI while in 2021-22, Karnataka took the first slot.
“When our government came to power, we had vowed that Maharashtra would be number 1 in FDI and have done it. If this has not silenced the Opposition, who keep complaining about projects moving out of Maharashtra, then the DIPP report ought to shut them up,” said Mr. Fadnavis.
The Deputy CM blamed the lack of confidence among investors on the poor governance of the previous MVA, claiming that the Thackeray-led regime was allegedly marred by corruption.
“Since our government was formed in June last year, I had promised to make Maharashtra the leader in the country. The State was already the leader in attracting investments when I was CM [between 2014 and 2019]. Now, under CM Eknath Shinde’s leadership, our thrust on good governance has created a conducive atmosphere for investments in the State,” Mr. Fadnavis said.
Responding to Mr. Fadnavis’ claims, Mr. Ajit Pawar quipped that it was “a matter of research” whether the new government had indeed attracted investments as it was claiming or merely trotting out fanciful figures.
“In the last 11 months, several projects have gone out of Maharashtra. The leaders of all three MVA parties, be it Aaditya Thackeray, Jayant Patil, Balasaheb Thorat or myself have been repeatedly raising this issue in the State Legislature. Where is the White Paper on investments that the State Government has been promising?” Mr. Pawar said.
Mr. Pawar urged the State Industries Minister Uday Samant to bring out the White Paper that had been promised in the past year.
Since September 2022, the opposition MVA has accused the Shinde-Fadnavis Government of “losing” the Vedanta-Foxconn project to neighbouring Gujarat, along with the ₹22,000 crore Tata-Airbus project for manufacturing military transport aircraft that is to come up in Vadodara in Gujarat, despite the State Government’s efforts to locate it in Nagpur.
Since then, the Opposition has been consistently accusing the State Government of failing to retain big ticket investment — a perception that the new government has been trying hard to shake-off following Mr. Shinde’s visit to the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland in January this year.
On his return, Mr. Shinde said that MoUs worth ₹1.37 lakh crore signed there would be actually implemented and not remain on paper, and that these MoUs would help generate one lakh direct or indirect jobs in the State.
