He also took a swipe at Union Minister and senior BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu who had called the rising tide of farm loan write-offs as a "fashion"
In an attempt to claim credit for the over Rs 34,000 crore farm loan waiver, Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray said it was pressure from the party which forced the BJP-led state government to consider the write-off. He also reiterated the Shiv Sena's opposition to the Mumbai- Nagpur Samruddhi expressway.
"The Shiv Sena took up this issue and stood by the farmers. It was because of the unity between the farmers and the Shiv Sena that those who felt that loan waivers were a fashion had to acquiesce," said Uddhav, while speaking in Aurangabad on Monday.
He also took a swipe at Union minister and senior BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu who had called the rising tide of farm loan write-offs a "fashion." Uddhav demanded that the cut-off date for the loan waivers be increased to June 2017 from the present June 2016 and sought that the state increase its doles for those farmers who repaid their agricultural loans regularly.
"The Shiv Sena does not oppose development. If the Shiv Sena was anti-development, then the Mumbai- Pune Express highway, the 55 flyovers in Mumbai and the Bandra-Worli Sea Link (BWSL) would not have been constructed. But development does not mean dispossession... It does not mean that the common man should lose his livelihood for dreams to come into reality," said Uddhav, while reiterating the party's opposition to the Mumbai- Nagpur Samruddhi Expressway.
The 710-km and eight-lane regional development project which will link Mumbai to the state's second capital of Nagpur in a Greenfield alignment is chief minister Devendra Fadnavis' pet scheme. It has, however, run into rough weather with farmers and landowners who are opposing the acquisition of their land.
Uddhav warned that the state government should not force the Shiv Sena to agitate for the Samruddhi expressway project, like in the case of loan waivers.
Incidentally, the Shiv Sena's Eknath Shinde holds charge of the public works (public undertakings) portfolio which controls the Maharashtra State Roads Development Corporation (MSRDC), which is executing the project.
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