Eknath Shinde is lagging behind his immediate two predecessors in collecting donations to the Chief Minister’s Assistance Fund, reveals a response to an RTI query. Compared to the previous two chief ministers of Maharashtra, Shinde did not bring in special donations, and this year only Rs 65.88 crore has been collected. The Chief Minister’s Secretariat has provided RTI activist Anil Galgali with these details. Uddhav Thackeray and Devendra Fadnavis significantly increased the fund when they were chief ministers, according to the information.
Sanjay Tambe, Assistant Accounts Officer, Chief Minister’s Secretariat, informed Anil Galgali in response to his query that the balance as of April 1, 2022, was Rs 418.88 crore and the balance as of March 31, 2023, was Rs 445.22 crore. Year-wise donation information of the Chief Minister’s Assistance Fund is available from January 1, 2015, to March 31, 2023. Shinde completed one year as CM on June 30 but the amount that he has gathered for the Chief Minister’s Assistance Fund is not that significant.
During Devendra Fadnavis’s tenure, in five years, Rs 614 crore was contributed to the Chief Minister’s Assistance Fund. Whereas during Uddhav Thackeray’s reign, Rs 793 crore was added in a mere two years. In the past year, Eknath Shinde has managed to raise only Rs 65.88 crore.
Data also shows that Devendra Fadnavis has been at the top among the three chief ministers in helping the needy over the past eight years. 1,07,782 applications were received during Fadnavis’s term, of which 63,573 citizens were given assistance of Rs 598.32 crore. Uddhav Thackeray helped 4,247 citizens out of 10,712 applications received with funds of Rs 20.28 crore. Eknath Shinde has helped 7,419 citizens out of 14,566 applications with Rs 57 crore.
“The state government should appoint intelligent and responsible IAS officers in the Chief Minister’s Assistance Fund Cell who will take up the task of increasing the fund amount and maintain transparency. The data that I have obtained from the CM’s office shows that current CM Eknath Shinde is way behind in gathering funds as compared to the other two former CMs. The CM Office should also make the beneficiary list public so that duplication and corruption don’t happen and this fund is given only to the needy,” Galgali said.
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