Maharashtra buses 'facing loss of ₹3 crore/day due to freebies'

Mumbai: BJP-led Mahayuti government in Maharashtra now seems to be facing the impact on its finances from the freebies and other doles it had announced in the run up to the elections.

Transport minister Pratap Sarnaik said the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) was facing a loss of ₹3 crore per day due to offering half rates to female commuters and free travel to senior citizens. If any more such concessions are given, it would make it difficult to run the transport utility, he said.

Sarnaik was speaking in Darashiv to journalists, who had sought concessions for travel on state transport buses.


MSRTC's finances are so precarious that it cannot give any new concession, he said.

No rethink: Shinde

Deputy CM Eknath Shinde, however, sought to allay apprehensions that the state was having a rethink on the concession for female commuters and senior citizens, saying that it will not be stopped. "The Ladki Bahin scheme will also not be stopped," Shinde said.

Contractors 'not paid for works totalling ₹1 lakh crore

Contractors engaged by the Maharashtra government have claimed that they have not been paid for works totalling ₹1 lakh crore. They have alleged that the state was diverting the funds to Ladki Bahin scheme under which women are given ₹1,500 per month.

The scheme is seen as one of the key factors behind BJP-led coalition's landslide victory in last year's assembly election.