Maharashtra on brink of bankruptcy due to MahaYuti govt's mismanagement: Congress

Mumbai, July 13 (IANS) Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole said on Saturday that the state is on the "brink of bankruptcy" due to the MahaYuti government's "financial mismanagement". 

He said the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG)'s "scathing criticism of the MahaYuti government's chaotic administration" has exposed the "hollowness of the government's grand claims".

"The state's debt burden of Rs 8 lakh crore is a matter of grave concern, and while the government is seeking supplementary demands and supporting additional loans, the CAG has given the same warning that the Opposition had issued to the corrupt MahaYuti government. However, the power-drunk government which was ignoring the Opposition's warnings, has now been slammed by the CAG. The CAG has also pointed out the financial indiscipline of the state," the Congress leader said.

Patole alleged that ever since the MahaYuti government came to power, corruption has been rampant in all departments. "They have the policy of 'give commissions and take tenders'. Projects worth thousands of crores have been started to fill the pockets of contractor friends -- benefiting the government's friends rather than the state," he said.

In the last two years, the Congress leader said, the state government has borrowed over Rs 2.5 lakh crore, resulting in the state's debt reaching Rs 8 lakh crore. "This debt amounts to 18.73 per cent of the state's gross fiscal revenue, which is higher than the provisions of the fiscal law," he said.

The Maharashtra Congress chief further said that there is a "significant gap between revenue receipts and expenditure. Despite not spending the allocated funds in the budget, demands for additional grants worth crores of rupees have been submitted".

"Immediately after presenting the interim budget, supplementary demands of Rs 94,000 crores were approved. We were going to question the government on supplementary demands in the state Assembly, but the ruling party deliberately created a ruckus and got these demands approved without discussion through their majority," he said.

--IANS

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