One more institution, the Central Board for Worker’s Education, shifted out of Maharashtra

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray (left) with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi, a file photograph.

The battle between the Maharashtra government and the Modi-led government at the Centre has been ongoing even before the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Shiv Sena broke their alliance in the State in 2019. Destabilising Maharashtra’s economy is part of the saffron strategy and a variety of subtle and not-so-subtle tactics have been used.

In 2014, when the BJP-Sena alliance was still strong and was ruling the State, the Centre moved some key institutions from Maharashtra to Gujarat. Sachin Sawant, general secretary of the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee, said: “The International Financial Services Centre at BKC in Mumbai was shifted to Gandhinagar in Gujarat. And the offices of patent design and trademarks were relocated to Delhi, as was the National Marine Police Academy, which was moved out of Palghar [north of Mumbai] to Dwarka, Gujarat.”

Now, the headquarters of the Central Board for Worker’s Education has been shifted from Nagpur to Delhi. Established in 1958, the board has been working for the empowerment of organised and unorganised workers by creating awareness on various social and economic issues. Opposing the move, Sachin Sawant said: “Since the Narendra Modi government came to power at the Centre, it has been trying to reduce the importance of Maharashtra by moving important institutions outside Maharashtra…. No other government had any problem with the Nagpur headquarters. But Modi has fulfilled his urge to move another important office in Maharashtra out of Maharashtra. The work of 50 divisional offices, nine sub-divisional offices and six divisional offices in the country is carried out here. Attempts to relocate the office to Delhi have been going on for the last four-five years and finally it has been decided to relocate it.”

Sachin Sawant also said there was a plan to move the ship-wrecking business that is carried out along certain sections of the coast of Mumbai and the neighbouring mainland to Alang in Gujarat. Earlier, there had been attempts to relocate the headquarters of the Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) to Gujarat, he said. MIAL was operated until recently by a GVK Group-led consortium, but in July it was taken over by Adani Airport Holdings Ltd (AAHL), a wholly owned subsidiary of Adani Enterprises Ltd.

“These moves need to be opposed by all since they are aimed at undermining the economy of the State,” said Sawant. “It’s unfortunate that BJP leaders in Maharashtra are silent on this.”