- Friday, March 07, 2025
By: PTI
Amid controversy over Maharashtra losing some big-ticket industrial projects, Indian National Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan on Tuesday (1) said the country was heading towards a new license-permit raj.
Political instability makes investors nervous, the former chief minister told reporters in Pune in the western state.
“The current Maharashtra government is not even able to form a full cabinet. That is not a good sign. The reasons (for instability) are change in the government, interference by Delhi and hijacking of the projects which should have come to Maharashtra,” he said.
During the infamous license-permit raj of the pre-1991 era, the central government could tell investors where they should invest, he said.
“When in 1991 new economic policies were brought in, the license-permit raj was abolished and no such power was left with the Centre,” Chavan said.
“But now what is happening is that due to concessions given by the Centre, we are unwittingly moving towards a (new) license-permit raj,” he said, implying that the Narendra Modi government was inducing investors to choose a particular location by offering concessions.
The alliance government of Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena faction and the Bharatiya Janata Party in Maharashtra is under fire after the neighbouring Gujarat bagged some mega-investment projects, allegedly at the former state’s expense.
Recently, a Tata-led consortium and Airbus announced a military aircraft manufacturing facility in Gujarat.
