Gadkari termed largely successful in NGO report card

NAGPUR: In a welcome sign of electoral awareness among common citizens, a group of Nagpurians have joined hands to form an organization for this task. It was formed in February 2014 just before the Lok Sabha elections. Even after the elections, the members are carrying on the work in the form of assessing the performance of public representatives.
Sanjeev Tare, who has founded Ethicality Assurance Center (EAC), told TOI that after the elections, his organization was comparing the achievements of elected representatives with the election promises they had made.“We prepare a sort of report card on the basis of this comparison. We give a copy to the representative too,” he explained.
EAC has prepared the report card of Nitin Gadkari, city MP and union transport minister. It has made it on the basis of five promises: (1) Attracting industries to Mihan (2) Creating permanent jobs in Mihan (3) Opposing creation of separate state of Vidarbha (4) According classical language status to Marathi (5) Giving licence to hawkers and footpath vendors. The period of assessment is from October 2014 to December 2014.
Tare said Gadkari was successful on the first count. “Industries are getting power at cheap rates as promised. Many industrialists have evinced interest in investing in the SEZ. Government is preparing to hold Destination Mihan 2015 for investors,” he said.
“However, he has not been able to create permanent jobs there. He had promised 50,000 jobs in two year. At least 500 jobs should have been created in last six months. Unfortunately, on this front, it has been only big promises by government,” Tare said.
Question mark has been raised on Gadkari’s stand on separate Vidarbha. “On the one hand, BJP’s manifesto during Lok Sabha elections did not mention creation of Vidarbha. However, before elections, he signed a document promising to support Vidarbha statehood. Later, he supported a staunch statehood supporter for the post of chief minister of united Maharashtra. So which is the minister’s actual stand – his own or the party’s?”
EAC considers that Gadkari was successful in getting accorded classical language status to Marathi. This has been done on the basis of education minister Vinod Tawde’s assurance that the status would be accorded before February end. “The report submitted by the state government has been sent for expert opinion. The central government has stated in the parliament that the proposal is under consideration,” he said.
On the last count – giving licences to hawkers and footpath vendors – Gadkari has been considered successful. The standing committee of Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) had cleared the proposal to register about 40,000 hawkers and provide then identity cards.