Taking a dig at former Chief Minister and Shiv Sena (UBT) faction leader Uddhav Thackeray, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on May 25 said that all top authorities in his administration moved in the field to solve people’s problems unlike the ex-CM who “conducted his government over Facebook.”Speaking in Ratnagiri, where he reviewed a slew of government projects, Mr. Shinde claimed that ever since the government led by his Shiv Sena faction and the BJP had taken power last year in June, officials were working more efficiently and more proactively than in the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) administration.
“We have removed all speed breakers. There are no obstacles to efficacy as in the last government. Ours is a government where everyone – from myself to the lowliest official - is hitting the field. Despite being the CM, both myself and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis visited every field afflicted by unseasonal rains this year,” said Mr. Shinde, adding that his government nor he did not function “online”. The CM’s thinly-veiled jibe at Mr. Thackeray was an allusion to the latter’s style of functioning.“Even though I am CM, I remain an activist and will continue to work as one in resolving problems of common people… our government had some time ago announced 75,000 government jobs. Ours must be the first government in the State to hand over recruitment letters where the prospective employees began working the very next day,” said the CM.Mr. Thackeray, who is said to have visited the State Secretariat barely twice in his two-and-a-half-year tenure as the State’s 19th Chief Minister, had been criticised not merely by his political opponents but by his allies as well, notably Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar. Mr. Shinde further alleged that the erstwhile MVA government had become notorious for its bureaucratic red tape and that the present administration had striven to be far more accessible to the public.