The Maharashtra government led by Uddhav Thackeray has reportedly cancelled its decision to spend Rs 5.98 crore for appointing a private agency to boost the image of the state’s Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar. The decision came after the Maha Vikas Aghadi government faced severe backlash for earmarking the amount for a minister’s PR at a time when the country is grappling with the Covid-19 crisis.
According to reports, following the criticism, Pawar himself has issued the instructions to cancel the earlier government order in this regard.
BJP had opposed and raised concerns after the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra Wednesday promulgated an order for appointing an external agency to handle the social media accounts of Deputy Chief Minister of Ajit Pawar.
BJP MLA Atul Bhatkhalkar slammed Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray for overburdening the State’s treasury which was already in a bad shape in the wake of the second wave of Covid-19 in the state that has ravaged the state’s finances.
Maharashtra govt spends Rs 6 cr in hiring PR agency to handle Ajit Pawar’s SM accounts
On May 13 it was reported how the order signed by the Undersecretary of the general administration RN Musale said that the external agency would handle Ajit Pawar’s Twitter handle and accounts on Facebook, Blogger, YouTube, Instagram. The private agency will also handle the sound cloud, WhatsApp bulletin, Telegram channel and SMS. It said that since the DGIPR lacks professional and technical competence to deal with social media, so it was felt that it would be appropriate if an external agency were hired for the purpose. And for this purpose, the Maharashtra Government had agreed to shell out a whooping amount of Rs 6 crores from the exchequer funds.