HC orders state to submit status of devp. works passed by MVA government

Lokmat News Network

Aurangabad:

The Aurangabad Bench of Bombay High Court comprising a panel of Justice Mangesh Patil and Justice Santosh Chapalgaonkar has upheld its interim order issued previously refraining the state government from scrapping the development works approved by the past Maha Vikas Aghadi-led government in the state during their tenure. The state was told not to suspend the works to whom the fund was allocated in the budget; the works to which the work orders were issued or the works which were not in the tendering process without the court’s permission.

Today, the bench has also ordered the state government to submit the list of works from which it has lifted the stay and the works on which the stay continues, to the High Court on January 20.

It may be noted that the chief minister Eknath Shinde and deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis-led government had stayed some development works of MVA. Hence the decision of the state government to stay the works to funds allocated in the budget was challenged in the Aurangabad Bench.

Earlier, the bench instructed the state not to grant a stay on development works whose work orders have been issued after the completion of the tender process. In a reply statement, the state government stated that the government is reviewing the said works at its level. When the case came up for hearing that it was told on behalf of the state government that it had lifted the stay from many development works. Hence, the petitioner’s lawyer Sambhaji Tope brought to the notice of the High Court that the state has lifted its stay from the works of their ruling party MLAs, while implementation of stay continues upon the works of public representatives from the opposition parties.

The petition has been filed in the bench by Vasmat MLA Raju Navghare, former Jalna ZP vice president Satish Tope, Pooja Kalyan Sapate and others. The petitioners had requested the High Court to allow the completion of works to whom the past MVA government had approved and allocated the funds during their tenure.

Accordingly, the notices were served to the state’s chief secretary and the secretaries of the Department of Planning, Department of Rural Development, Department of Tribal Development, Urban Development Department and Department of Soil and Water Conservation. The chief public prosecutor D R Kale pleaded on behalf of the state government.