Project location: Mumbai; walk-in interview: Chennai. Aaditya Thackeray asks why – Hindustan Times

Former Maharashtra minister Aaditya Thackeray on Wednesday posted a job advertisement for an infrastructure company which is calling for engineers for the construction of the Versova Bandra Sea Link project in Mumbai. Pointing out that the walk-in interview is being held in Chennai and not in any city in Maharashtra, the former minister asked whether chief minister Eknath Shinde is even aware of his own department. Maharashtra is being pushed towards economic isolation by the current dispensation, the Shiv Sena leader said amid the ongoing controversy over the Vedanta-Foxconn project which went to Gujarat instead of Maharashtra.

Read | Losing Vedanta-Foxconn, Bulk Drug Park deals: A Herculean failure of state govt

Aaditya Thackeray made it clear that he had no problem with the walk-in interview being held in Chennai. But why not in Mumbai, Thane, Nagpur, Nashik, Kolhapur, the former minister asked. “I am a firm believer in excellence, that it must be brought in for work from world over. I’m also a believer that all States must be given a chance to progress. But I’m also of the firm belief, that in every state, locals must be given an equal opportunity for job selection,” Aaditya tweeted adding that it creates a great pain to see such an advertisement when Maharashtra already lost 1 lakh jobs after Vedanta went to Gujarat.

Read: ‘Shinde has gone to perform Mujra in Delhi’: Uddhav on Vedanta-Foxconn fiasco

Thackeray said investment proposals with the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation were put on stay with the change in the government and only now the current dispensation is “waking up to take a call on pending proposals”. “How are we to expect investment under a government that doesn’t bother about jobs and investment and opportunities?” he tweeted.

Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi too raised questions over the advertisement and tweeted, “How many more rightful jobs for the state’s youth does this illegitimate govt plan to take away?”

Vedanta should be brought back to Maharashtra: Uddhav Thackeray

The row over Vedanta is going on for a week since the MoU was signed with the Gujarat government. While the Uddhav-Sena blamed the current government for passing on the project to Gujarat at the instruction of the Centre, deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said when he met Vedanta chairman soon after the new government was formed, the company had already made its mind to go to Gujarat.

On Wednesday, Uddav Thackeray referred to the Vedanta row and said the government should now bring back the project instead of indulging in the blame-game.