In the weekly cabinet meeting of the Maharashtra government on Thursday, chief minister Eknath Shinde and deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar sparred over the issue of speed-clearing some projects that the former wanted done. Their heated exchange apparently ended when Pawar walked out of the meeting in a huff. However, after his exit, nearly 38 decisions were passed by the cabinet; another 40 decisions were taken earlier this month. The Shinde-led government has been in the super-fast mode to clear projects, announce sops, declare investments to the tune of thousands of crores and approve massive cost escalations, all in a matter of minutes or even on social media platforms. That the government is well into the pre-poll stage and, as all governments do, is making the most of its time before the state Assembly elections are announced is a well-known fact.
However, the outcome of such hasty, imprudent, even rash decisions will linger on long after the votes have been counted to either return this tripartite government of the BJP, Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party or give the mandate to the opposition three-party alliance of Shiv Sena (Thackery), Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar), and Congress. Fiscal considerations have little meaning for a government that has decided to pull out all stops and distribute largesse to please all the people it can. The state’s debt, as of June 2024, was a whopping Rs 7.11 lakh crore – nearly twice that in 2018-19 when the state elections were last held – with its debt-to-GDP ratio at an unsustainable 18.4 percent for 2024-25. In FY 2023-24, it borrowed an unprecedented Rs 82,043 crore.
The extraordinary profligacy apart, it is of concern is that the haste in projects could have undesirable outcomes. The rush has meant that incomplete ones have been inaugurated with great fanfare, often with Prime Minister Narendra Modi doing the honours, or projects have been announced without a cohesive plan. This is most evident in the marquee Metro 3 Aqua Line in Mumbai, the underground metro project spanning 33.5 kilometres, a portion of which was opened earlier this month. The exits at most of the operational stations are either not planned or not segued into the existing transport systems throwing commuters out on to busy roads with oncoming traffic, such as at Bandra Kurla Complex, or the stops at the two terminals of the airport are positioned so that commuters – with bags and possibly with children or elderly too – are forced to walk for a good 5-10 minutes to access the gates.
The much-vaunted coastal road too has shown issues with a confusing array of exits and unclear signages which means that unfamiliar users have to drive for kilometres in the other direction after missing their turn. Its ability to increase traffic congestion at key points in Bandra and Versova will be tested soon. Flyovers and grade separators have not reduced road time or eased congestion at key points on highways. Commuters take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour to negotiate a stretch of barely five kilometres to railway terminus from their office areas because the last-mile connectivity to railway and metro stations is poor and disorganized. Pedestrian crossings end at road dividers. The posh Bandra Kurla Complex symbolises all of this – poorly planned precinct, grossly inadequate transport systems to nearest railway stations and so on. This area is now set to get pod taxis to ease commutes – a hare-brained idea if there ever was one.
Whether it is the controversial but obviously popular Ladki Bahin Yojana giving money to Maharashtra’s women or approving salary hike of three times to madrasa teachers besides scores of similar decisions, the Shinde-led government brings a bad name to governance. Indeed, there is hardly any governance; it is all a game of distributing munificence, literally and figuratively through projects, for votes. That most governments behave this way before an election does not make Shinde-led government’s moves legitimate. Maharashtra can ill-afford it. When the outcomes are either financially debilitating or make a royal mess of urban planning in already-congested cities like Mumbai, Thane and Pune, while largely ignoring the far-out rural areas, the government’s recklessness and thorough disregard of norms have to be called out.
