Mumbai: Maharashtra Congress chief Harshwardhan Sapkal claimed that chief minister Devendra Fadnavis was not accepting the reality of the closure of businesses in the state, as revealed in Lok Sabha, and was making a desperate attempt to deny it.Sapkal claimed that as many as 36,211 private companies in the state have shut down over the past five financial years, including 12,181 companies in Mumbai, the country’s financial capital, which is extremely alarming. Sapkal said: “Union Minister of State for Corporate Affairs Harsh Malhotra provided the information on the number of companies that have shut down in Maharashtra in a written reply in the Lok Sabha. It has emerged that the Mumbai–Pune–Nashik belt has recorded the highest number of company closures.”Sapkal stated that the BJP-led Mahayuti govt’s claims of attracting investments worth lakhs of crores of rupees and creating employment opportunities exist only on paper, while corruption, commission-seeking and the hooliganism of people close to those in power are forcing industries in Maharashtra to shut down or relocate to other states.Sapkal said, “Fadnavis claims that the companies that have shut down are merely ‘defunct companies’, but the realty is that these companies became defunct and subsequently closed down.”He also demanded that govt cancel the decision to allot 1,500 acres of govt land on lease in Ahilyanagar district to a private company, allegedly close to a minister, for non-agricultural use for 50 years.
