MVA govt bans officials from attending meetings organised by LoP Fadnavis; BJP cries foul

In a significant move on Tuesday, a Government Resolution was issued in Maharashtra restricting officials from attending meetings organised by the Leader of Opposition. This comes in the wake of former CM and LoP Devendra Fadnavis's statewide tour where he visited many cities plagued by the COVID-19 crisis. During these visits, he often reviewed the situation along with administrative officials. 

The GR specifies that only Ministers have the right to call officials for meetings, have discussions with them, and give them orders. At the same time, the state government has mooted another solution to resolve the pressing problems of the people. The district collector has been advised to demand the list of pending works in advance. Every month, a day will be set aside to convene a meeting in this regard for which the concerned MLA shall be invited.

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BJP slams MVA government

BJP MLA Ram Kadam expressed strong disapproval of this GR. He mentioned that Fadnavis was touring the nook and corner of Maharashtra to help the people, something that the state Ministers had failed to do. According to him, this was the MVA government's ploy to ensure that their alleged poor handling of the COVID-19 situation is not brought to public notice. Thereafter, Kadam demanded the withdrawal of the aforesaid GR. Currently, there are 3,27,031 novel coronavirus cases in Maharashtra out of which 1,82,217 patients have been discharged while 12,276 fatalities have been reported. 

Ram Kadam remarked, "The government which has totally failed to handle the COVID-19 crisis has come with a new diktat. In this crisis situation, it is necessary for the Ministers and the ruling party MLAs to tour the state. It is essential for them to help people. Owing to fear, the Ministers are not ready to leave their homes. On the other hand, Devendra Fadnavis and Pravin Darekar are going to the nook and corner of Maharashtra and helping people. They are talking to officials. The government's order has stopped this. What is the reason for this? To ensure that the failure of the Maharashtra government is not brought to light, the government has done this. They will have to take back this diktat."

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