Maharashtra govt funds to be deposited only in PSU banks: Ajit Pawar

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Friday (March 6) said government funds would be deposited only in nationalised bank and not private lenders. He said Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has instructed the chief secretary to ensure this.

Pawar, who is also the state finance minister, made the comments in Thackeray’s presence after the former presented the state’s budget for 2020-21 in the assembly.

“The chief minister has instructed the chief secretary and other secretaries to deposit government funds in nationalised banks, particularly ones protected by the Centre,” Pawar told reporters outside state legislature building complex here.

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His statements came in the backdrop of controversy over the transfer of salary accounts of the police department to Axis Bank, a private lender, allegedly by the previous BJP government led by Devendra Fadnavis. Fadnavis’s wife Amruta holds a senior post in Axis Bank.

The Bombay High Court, on Thursday, sought Fadnavis’s response to a petition questioning the transfer of salary accounts of the police department to Axis Bank.

A senior official had stated last year that salary accounts of police personnel were with UTI Bank — later renamed as Axis Bank — since 2005, much before Fadnavis became chief minister in 2014.

(With inputs from agencies)

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