Mumbai, Nov 16 (UNI) Former Union minister and Congress MP, P Chidambaram, on Saturday took a swipe at the BJP-led government in Maharashtra, claiming that it was operating under the influence of Gujarat, and now, it is time to bring about change and bring back the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in power.
Talking to reporters here, he said that since its inception, Maharashtra was at the forefront of all sectors in India, thanks to the vision and policies implemented by the Congress governments.
As a result, Mumbai is known as the financial capital of the country, he said.
However, in recent years, under the BJP government, Maharashtra has seen a decline across all fronts, with major projects being shifted from Maharashtra to other states, resulting in a loss of investment and jobs, he noted.
Speaking further, he said that farmer distress has led to an increase in farmers' suicides.
Due to a drop in Maharashtra's per capita income, states like Karnataka, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Haryana were surpassing it, he claimed.
Presenting a detailed statistics on how Maharashtra has regressed under the BJP rule, he highlighted that Maharashtra's per capita income has dropped from 9.6 per cent to 7.6 per cent, the agriculture sector growth declined from 4.5 per cent to 1.9 per cent, service sector growth fell from 13 per cent to 8.8 per cent and the construction sector's growth decreased from 14.5 per cent to 6.2 per cent, leading to ballooning of e fiscal deficit.
Even though the government is spending money, growth is not visible in any sector, he noted.
Talking about unemployment in Maharashtra, the Congress leader alleged that unemployment in Maharashtra is at a critical level, with the unemployment rate hovering at 10.8 per cent.
The proportion of salaried employees has dropped from 40 per cent to 31 per cent, while 40 per cent people are now self-employed, he pointed.
For 18,000 police recruitment posts, 11 lakh applications were received, and for 4,600 talathi (revenue officer) position, 11.5 lakh applications were submitted, highlighting the severity of unemployment, he stressed.
Several major industries were ready to invest in Maharashtra, and memorandums of understanding (MoUs) were signed, and land was allocated for projects, however, these projects were eventually moved to other states, he said.
Proposed projects such as the bulk drugs project in Raigad, Vedanta-Foxconn semiconductor project in Talegaon, and Tata-Airbus project in Nagpur were relocated to other states, he informed.
"If such job-creating projects have moved out of Maharashtra, where will the state's youth find employment?" he questioned and urged the youth and their parents to keep Union Minister Nitin Gadkari's statement "Where are the jobs in the state?" in mind while voting on November 20.
Continuing his attack on the BJP government, Chidambaram charged that the BJP government lacks a concrete policy for farmers, and its anti-farmer policies have worsened the plight of farmers in Maharashtra, he claimed.
He said that the state produces 65 lakh tonnes of onions annually and exporting onions would fetch good prices for farmers, however, the BJP government at the Centre imposed a ban on onion exports and levied a 40 per cent tax on it. This caused onion prices to crash in the market, thus severely impacting farmers, he lamented.
Today, farmers' suicides in Maharashtra have increased sharply, with 2,851 farmers' suicides being recorded in the past year.

Despite the severe crisis, the government has not provided loan waiver to relieve farmers of their debt burden.
Additionally, 17.4 per cent of Maharashtra's population lives below the poverty line, he pointed out.
Replying to a question on BJP's target of achieving a five trillion dollars Indian economy and a one trillion dollars Maharashtra's economy, Chidambaram remarked that the BJP government has extended the timeline for these goals.
Initially, the five trillion dollars target was to be achieved by 2022-23, he said.
While it is not impossible to reach this target eventually, the real concern is the pace required to achieve it.
“It is not the target, but the speed that matters,” Chidambaram added.
UNI VKB SS