Ahead of elections, Maharashtra govt had cleared road works worth Rs 9,300 crore in tribal areas

Indian Express

6 days ago

In months leading to the 2024 Lok Sabha and Assembly elections, Maharashtra's Tribal Development department had approved road works worth Rs 9,300 crore against the approved budget of merely Rs 2,830 crore.
As per the data accessed by The Indian Express, the government has dues pending Rs 10,100 crore for the works undertaken in the past three years. The finance minister has directed to avoid taking up the new projects and focus on paying up the dues. Directions have also been given to review the works which were given administrative approval but could not be started for over a year.
The Tribal Affairs department of the state government undertake road works in tribal areas (budget head 5054 5117).
Since the year 2022-23 to 2024-25, works worth Rs 13,016 crore were approved against the approved budget of just Rs 3,230 crore. As per the data, in December 2023 (leading up to Lok Sabha 2024 polls) woks worth Rs 4,500 crore and in July 2024 (leading up to Assembly 2024 polls) works worth Rs 4,800 crore were approved, which amounts to a total of 70 per cent of the total works in the past three years. Prior to December 2023, the total amount of administrative approval for the year 2023-24 was Rs 2,900 crore only.
As per the data, works worth Rs 700 crore were given administrative approval in the year 2022-23 against the budget of Rs 400 crore.
On Tuesday, Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister Ajit Pawar held a review of the financial situation of the department. 'The total pendency of the dues is around Rs 10,000 crore for last three years. The minister has directed us to ensure that dues are paid and there will be no new projects,' said an official who attended the meeting.
Pawar has also asked to take the review of the pending road works for more than a year. 'There are works which did not start for more than a year despite administrative approval. Directions have been given that those works will be cancelled,' said the official.
The associations of Maharashtra's contractors and engineers have been demanding their dues from the government since last year. In February they wrote a letter to state government's top leadership warning to stop all ongoing infrastructure works as payments worth Rs 89,000 crore from different departments have allegedly not been paid since July 2024. Despite stopping the works in phase-wise manner across the state, the contractors have yet not been paid.
Among the alleged Rs 89,000 crore dues of the contractors include Rs 46,000 crore from the Public Works Department (PWD), Rs 18,000 crore from the Jal Jeevan Mission under Water Supply and Sanitation department, Rs 8,600 crore from the rural development department, Rs 19,700 crore from the irrigation department and Rs 1,700 crore from the works done under DPDC, MLA fund and MP fund.