Holding the erstwhile Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government responsible for Maharashtra’s mounting electricity arrears, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) State president Jayant Patil claimed that the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL)’s arrears had snowballed to a whopping ₹67,000 crore during the tenure of the BJP government led by Devendra Fadnavis.
During a review of the upcoming Maharashtra Legislative Council polls in Pune on Friday, Mr. Patil, who is also the State Water Resources Minister, said the Uddhav Thackeray has ordered an inquiry to ascertain how power arrears soared during the BJP’s rule.
“To determine this, time must be given to our Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government to understand just how the MSEDCL has plunged into this crisis. We want to enable the power board to provide relief to the people and our government will try to alleviate the arrears’ problem,” Mr. Patil said, adding that the MVA government was capable of providing relief to people with inflated power bills.
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Expressing confidence that the ruling government would sweep all five graduates’ and teachers’ constituency seats in the Maharashtra Legislative Council polls on December 1, Mr. Patil said the three parties would commence their joint campaign from 11 talukas in Pune district from Saturday.
The NCP has fielded sugar baron Arun Lad from the Pune graduate constituency seat, while the Congress has nominated Jayant Asgaonkar from the Pune teachers’ constituency seat.
Mr. Patil said the BJP’s statements alleging that the Congress was being bullied by the other MVA allies must be firmly ignored.
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