Terming the demand for his resignation as politically motivated, Union Minister for Heavy Industries Vilasrao Deshmukh, on Thursday, dismissed the Opposition's demand for his resignation in the wake of the Supreme Court passing strictures against him for abusing his position as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra.
“These are political things. I cannot expect anything positive from my opponents,” Mr. Deshmukh told reporters when asked about the demand from the Opposition parties in Maharashtra – the Bharatiya Janata Party and Shiv Sena — that he quit in the wake of the court's observations against him.
Raising a technical issue, Mr. Deshmukh said he has asked for a certified copy of the Supreme Court judgment. While the Shiv Sena had demanded the resignation of Mr. Deshmukh from the Union Council of Ministers in the wake of the apex court's observations, the Congress has so far remained non-committal on the issue.
Criminal case
The Supreme Court had on Tuesday pulled up Mr. Deshmukh for preventing the police from registering a criminal case against a Congress legislator's money-lender father and imposed a staggering Rs. 10 lakh fine on the State government.
Customs duty
Earlier, speaking at the national conference on ‘Indian Capital Goods Industry – Prospects and Issues' organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry and Department of Heavy Industries, Mr. Deshmukh said the Ministry of Heavy Industries will take up with the Finance Ministry, the need for imposing a 14 per cent customs duty on capital goods to give the domestic industry a level playing field.
“We will refer the matter to the Cabinet for a decision,” he said.
New schemes
Mr. Deshmukh said the Department of Heavy Industries had evolved a scheme for setting up four Common Facility Centres for machine tools, textile machinery, heavy electrical equipment and processing plant equipment. Establishment of two industrial cluster parks for machine tools and textile machinery to enhance the competitiveness of the Indian capital goods industry at the global level was also being undertaken.
He said the Finance Ministry had agreed to make a provision of Rs. 300 crore for this purpose.