The Fadnavis government promised to scrap the toll. But the Mumbai-Pune Expressway toll operator had collected an amount in excess of the target in November 2016 itself. Similarly, the government has not reduced the petrol and diesel prices, which are the highest in the country. On the positive side, they have made progress on the Pune-Nashik highway. The demand was pending since a decade to construct this highway and the Fadnavis-led government has completed the work. But the fact is both the government - Congress or BJP - are doing the same things, they promise many development activities, but nothing is done in reality.
—Vivek Velankar, Activist and Founder, Sajag Nagrik Manch
This government is no different from any other government that has ruled the State. Promises were made but they remained unfulfilled. We expected that this government would have more citizens’ participation, but unfortunately, the graph is moving downwards. The basic contempt against this government is that it is not taking the citizens into consideration while implementing new decisions or projects or schemes. There is zero involvement of citizens on various issues pertaining to the civic development. Secondly, it is involved more into glamourising the things than the actuals. To support its services are more important than building bridges or flyovers. Metro is a good idea, but it lacks the planning and ground realities. I wonder how a metro would run from Juna Bazaar area? The replies to Right to Information (RTI) queries are not given for all issues and only selected queries get replies.
—Satish Khot, Social Activist
The present State government has worked fairly in terms of improving the education system. Their initiative to make teachers’ training more rigid and accessible to teachers has worked out well. This government has become technology-apt as teachers training is followed by a quick 10 minute question and answer session which allows getting a feedback if the teachers were able to learn and understand the teaching process. Moreover, teachers are told that if they are unable to perform well in their profession, he/she will be sacked. Another initiative to call re-examination session for class X and XII within one month of the results declared is a game changer for students. However, what the present government has failed to address is that content training for teachers is still lacking in the State.
—Anil Gore, famously known as Marathi-Kaka
Whatever dreams of development, the Fadnavis government promised us, is based on acquiring lands from farmers. On one hand, we are saying we want to promote cultivable land as there is food scarcity and on the other hand, we are ruining farmlands in the guise of development. People are not happy with land acquisition, and it is no good to permanently turn our fertile reproductive lands into roads. A large number of trees are being cut everywhere in the guise of development. Another example of mindless construction by the government is CM’s dream project of building Shivaji Maharaj’s memorial in the Arabian Sea. The only positive change brought about by this government is the law for the prohibition of ‘caste panchayat’, which made Maharashtra the first State to bring such law.
—Aseem Sarode, Human Rights and Environmental Activist and Advocate
The rate of crimes against women has definitely gone up. While certain initiatives have been taken to ensure women’s safety, for instance, the police had launched an app called ‘Pratisaad’ to provide help to women in cases of emergency. However, many who tried to use the app have reported of not getting any response from the police on time. Many such initiatives of the government have not accomplished their goals. Even the meeting held by Maharashtra State Women’s Commission didn’t have any promising ideas for ensuring the safety of women. What has been there in the past has been still maintained and no great change has been brought about by the State government. The only relief that we have received has been given in the form of some milestone decisions by the judiciary.
—Rama Sarode, Women’s Rights Activist and Advocate
Fadnavis government has performed autocratically and miserably. On one hand, it is making disastrous ventures with hidden agenda on the economic front. And they are taking advantage of the sentiment against black money. It calculates the people’s sentiments and pushes the big hollow for political mileage. It is a clear distraction from actually doing anything. The government has been utterly insensitive towards the Anganwadi workers and unorganised workforce in factories. Moreover, indirect taxation through petrol and diesel is the loot of people’s money. In case of loan waivers for farmers, it seems that the State government is playing a cruel joke with them.
—Ajit Abhayankar, Economist and CPM leader
The University Act was proposed in 2011 and it took six years to be implemented. This was delayed due to the slow process of both previous and the present State government. According to the Act, the emphasis is on giving access to students on management decisions. The government has to understand that more than students, these boards require experts from DRDO, ISRO, IITs and other entities to work as advisors to vice-chancellors. Digital classrooms are required but it is also necessary to have trained and talented professors who will use these digital means to impart quality education. In reality, we lack good teachers.
—Arun Nigvekar, former chairperson of University Grants Commission (UGC)
The Fadnavis government has disappointed us in many ways. During the strike of Anganwadi workers, the government firstly did not respond. And later when they did, they made minimal changes in the wage system. Their delay in taking action to give us respite, delayed benefits reaching young children and their parents, for whom we work. It is sad to note that the government did not even want to end the strike for the betterment of all.
—Hirabai Ghonge, Anganwadi worker
Considering the tribes, it is important to give more importance to the three components of education, health and employment. But the performance of the Fadnavis government in last three years is not satisfactory in these sectors. The case of deaths of tribal ashram school students is well known all over the country. However, today also, the students are dying and this system has not improved. Health is a big problem. Fadnavis government granted blanket amnesty to all those employees who got government jobs on the basis of fake Schedule Tribe (ST) certificates. This government also supported the bogus tribal students in medical, engineering and other professional courses’ admission.
—Ravindra Talpe, Tribal Welfare Activist
Provision of security to the already overworked and stressed resident doctors at government hospitals has always been a burning issue, all the more since 2016 after which the State saw an alarming rise not only in the number of attacks but also in their nature, which was mob violence. Several other issues plaguing the system, such as very high annual fees of around Rs 75,000, along with stipend being among the lowest in the country, poor working and living conditions, as well as no medical leaves, are yet to be looked into. Resident doctors routinely have to manage over 120 working hours each week despite there being a government notification limiting the working hours to 48 for six days in a week. We have full faith in our administration as well as the Fadnavis government and we are sure these issues will be resolved soon.
—Dr Datta Shete, President of Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD) from BJ General Medical College
The new University Act which has come into effect under the present government has empowered vice-chancellors of all public universities to make decisions towards improving the quality of education imparted at the university without any interference by the government. Also, the government is trying to rope in foreign faculty members. Meanwhile, with regards to their initiative to make evaluation process online, the execution has become a little disoriented. What happened at Mumbai University is an example of it, wherein they tried to check all papers online eventually putting more load on the digital system. Instead, they should have started in small departments so that the teachers also get used to it. For the first time, the government has taken a step to start colleges where there is a genuine need. Unlike earlier, when every village and city had colleges and no takers for the seats.
—Nitin Karmalkar, Vice-Chancellor of Savitribai Phule Pune University
Nothing has changed for better in the last three years in the education sector. Despite having a really good Act in place i.e. the Fee Regulation Act, there is no proper implementation. The education minister is practically doing nothing. Two years ago, he promised that he would call for balance sheets of the schools and regulate fee hike, but none of this has materialised and schools are still getting away with capitation charges and unreasonable fee hikes. The Right to Education (RTE) Act is also not being implemented properly. Children’s security is also another major issue and the government has taken steps only after the Gurgaon murder. The government has failed the parents and students in the State.
—Anubha Sahai, President, Parents of Private Schools of Maharashtra (POPSOM)
We have not seen any major development in the education sector by the Fadnavis government. Parents aren’t getting justice despite the existence of laws against the school fee hike. Parents are forced to go to the High Court to get their demands met all the time. The government-run schools are still suffering from low teaching standards and poor infrastructure. The merit level at these schools is still low and the drop-out rate quite high. We had suggested bringing in a centralised monitoring system to keep a check on the standard of education at the government schools, however, that hasn’t happened till date. Basically, the government doesn’t have any control over the functioning of the education department.
—Matin Mujawar, Education Activist, Shikshan Hakka Manch
There have been several positive decisions by this government for the restaurant sector, especially the step to revoke police licences for restaurants. Once the municipal body provides a sanction, there is no need for police sanction. However, we expect that the excise duty should not be hiked in the future and the prices of food grains and products are maintained so as to keep it pocket friendly for the consumers. We are happy with the GST regime but are hoping for a reduction in tax slabs to five per cent and 12 per cent instead of the current 12 per cent and 18 per cent.
—Ganesh Shetty, Pune Restaurants and Hoteliers Association
The State government has taken certain steps in line with the initiatives and plans of the Central government but it is lagging in implementation of the same. There have been proposals with regard to the industry and reforms in labour laws, which need to be hastened at the State level. Over the next two years, the industry also has expectations with regard to ease of doing business in terms of faster clearances and submission of returns and others. There is a need of simplification of these aspects to ensure further ease of doing business in the State.
—Anant Sardeshmukh, Director General, Mahratta Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture
To address cleanliness and security issues, we approached many officials at different levels but there is no one to listen to our problems. I am not comparing this government with anyone, but there is no one to provide solutions to our problems. The government has made only promises, but it is not giving us any solutions. The BJP is ruling in the Centre, State and municipal corporation but there is no coordination. The potholes on the roads, garbage etc are some of the many problems faced by the citizens which remain unsolved.
—Qaneez Sukhrani, Convenor, Association of Nagar Road Citizens Forum
We are centrally funded institutions and hence, hardly interact with the state authorities despite working in various states. However, if I would be asked to rate Devendra Fadnavis for his performance in last three years, then I would give him 6.5/10. The performance was good. Neither very bad nor excellent. There were few announcements made of which few have been taken off, while few haven’t been touched upon. Rashtriya Avishkar Yojana was one of them which is a good project. Being a scientist, I have hopes from him to perform better in coming years.
—Dr Arvind Natu, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER)
As doctors, we are deeply disappointed with the Fadnavis government. Not only it has continued its flip-flop policy of compulsory rural stint for meritorious medical students of government medical colleges but lengthened the medical curriculum by years. This also raises doubts if the government is indirectly promoting private medical colleges. Assaults on doctors are a result of medical profession being painted dark by the media, judiciary and superstars. With a bias about the profession, unsatisfied patients dare to attack the doctors. Workplace safety is very important for us.
—Dr Nitin Bhagali, Pune Citizens Doctors Forum
BJP’s initiatives to implement its half cooked dream projects, be it Central or State, through petrol pumps have put us through torture. To begin with, registrations for the Prime Minister Ujjwal Yojna and the collection of old currency following demonetisation have been disastrous. The torture didn’t end with the collection of notes and we were subjected to income tax raids. Then the daily price revision when petrol prices shot up here and the brunt was suffered by dealers in the State. We have suffered very much in the BJP regime and we are extremely unhappy. We have become a model to implement government schemes and policies. Petrol pumps are a sanitised area where we conduct business and not implement government projects.
—Ali Daruwalla, All India Petrol Dealers Association
The State government has failed on various levels in the education system starting from pre-primary school to secondary school education. The Bombay High Court (HC) had ordered the government to bring in a policy for pre-primary schools. The HC had given six-month time but the government is yet to formulate any rules for the same. These pre-primary schools where children in the age group of 3-4 years study are charged above Rs 1 lakh and extra fee for extra-curriculum activities which is incorrect. The Fadnavis government has still not released the reimbursement amount of RTE admissions to schools in consequence to which many schools have been reluctant in taking RTE admissions. The State government’s budget for education is just 18 per cent while in other states like Delhi, it is 25 per cent. This clearly reflects that education is on the least priority list of the State government.
—Mukund Kirdat, RTE activist
The 2016 National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) was a mess and the State government was at fault. In 2013, when NEET came into effect, there was a lot of confusion whether it will continue or not. The then State government had decided to keep the State Common Entrance Test (CET) syllabus at par with NEET syllabus which included Class XI and XII curriculum. However, State Education Minister Vinod Tawde had presumed that NEET will be scrapped. Therefore, he had confidently announced that older syllabus of CET will be reinforced which consisted of only the Std 12 syllabus. Unfortunately, the same year, NEET was reinstated and all students preparing for CET were at stake. This only reflects how irresponsibly the State government is formulating policies for students.
—Durgesh Mangeshkar, Founder of IITians Prashikshan Kendra
The ‘Achhe Din’ have not yet come. The government made many promises and the citizens’ expectations are high, but the chief minister has not done anything worth appreciating. There is no transparency, accountability and public participation in governance. When Tukaram Munde joined as CMD of PMPML, expectations were high, but what happened? Lakhs of commuters daily travel by PMPML buses but the government hiked the bus pass fees for senior citizens and college students. Things have not changed and commuters are still suffering.
—Jugal Rathi, Activist and Founder of Pune Pravasi Manch
The Fadnavis and the Modi governments have lost on many fronts. But the major sector where they are unsuccessful is in the public health care. In terms of crop production, Maharashtra is at the third position, however, for public health, it stands at the 21st position. The entire public health care system is on the ventilator. The public health system is so neglected that it seems that the government is conspiring to lure the patients to private hospitals. The number and the qualification of nurses and doctors and other medical fraternity can improve only when the government invests more funds in it.
—Dr Abhijit Vaidya, National President of Arogya Sena
Action is needed on multiple fronts to improve rural economy, failing which, large-scale rural-urban migration will continue unabated. The government should focus on two key priorities. Firstly improving connectivity, constructing roads serving even the smallest habitations and remotest locations. Secondly, enhancing the income of rural population by creating employment opportunities and increased agricultural income. Focus on these priorities will also result in improvement of ancillary services like education, healthcare, water and sanitation, skill development, etc.
—Nilaya Varma, Partner and COO, Infrastructure, Government and Healthcare (IGH), KPMG in India
The government is trying to show off more than what it has actually done. There is no work done on the ground level but it is only on the paper. This government promised to end corruption from the system, however, we can clearly see corruption has increased instead. Also, they are wasting a lot of time in understanding governance. When BJP was in opposition, it supported the activists and critics, but now, it is not able to take criticism sportingly. No doubt, the earlier government was useless but even this government has disappointed us.
—Vijay Kumbhar, RTI Activist
