Ashish Shelar (52) started his political career as a worker of the BJP, then he became a corporator from Bandra from where he successfully won the assembly elections. Until recently he was president of the city unit of the BJP
In which position he led the party to victory in the assembly elections. As the minister for culture and IT in the Devendra Fadnavis government, he has shown tremendous administrative acumen. He spoke to S Balakrishnan in his office at Bandra on Sunday.
Excerpts from an interview:
What are your three main achievements as the minister for culture?
Frankly speaking these are not my achievements, but that of the government led by Devendra Fadnavis. The first achievement was getting as many as 12 forts of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj declared a world heritage sites by UNESCO. It was a tough task gathering all evidence over several stages. Experts appointed by UNESCO went through the evidence through a fine tooth comb and rarely has all the sites recommended by a government got approval. But in our case, with the support of PM Modi, all the 12 sites were approved by UNESCO and that too by retaining the nomenclature suggested by us.
The second achievement was bringing back the sword of Raghuji Bhosale from London. We took part in the auction of this historic sword which was actually used in battle. We successfully bid in the auction and brought it home.
But the Antulay government too had brought the famed Bhavani sword of Chhatrapati Shivaji to Mumbai.
It was only temporarily brought to Mumbai. It is now back in the British museum. In our case we purchased the sword of Raghuji Bhosale in London and it will now be with us forever.
What is the third achievement?
The third achievement was the declaration of Ganesh festival as a state festival. We expanded the scope of the festival. This year we held as many as 1,200 cultural programmes during the festival and next year it will be celebrated on an even more grand scale. Not only will this take the festival to another level, but also give a big boost to domestic and international tourism.
As the minister for information technology (IT) what has been done to promote e-governance?
Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis is a very tech savvy person and under his guidance we have been able to expand the scope of e-governance. Now our target is to provide AI-based governance across maharashtra. Through Whatsapp governance will be made very simple and the people's access to government services will be made much easier. Already there is a dashboard in the CM's office through which a close watch is being kept at happenings at the district level. For example, if a file is held up in the Nandurbar collectorate through AI it will be tracked in real time in CMO. The immediate target is to make at least 80 % of work in Mantralaya and 60% in the districts AI-based. As part of our goal of Vikasit Maharashtra by 2047 AI-based administration will be a reality even at the village level.
You are campaigning for the regularisation of occupation of buildings without OC. Is it not a violation of law? If a builder builds beyond the commencement certificate (CC) and it is regularised post-facto is it not illegal? In the Tardeo building case the Supreme Court had come down heavily on people occupying flats without OC?
There are 25,000 buildings in Mumbai where people are living without OC or with part OC. The sword of Damocles is hanging over their heads for no fault of theirs. They purchased flats with their hard-earned money and for the fault of the builders they are being sought to be evicted. I am of the opinion that such unscrupulous builders should be sent to jail. But what crime have the occupants committed? My effort is to give them justice within the four corners of law.
The BMC elections are round the corner. Will the BJP be facing them as a part of the Mahayuti alliance or will it go alone?
There is absolutely no question of going it alone. Mumbai derives its name from Mother Mumbadevi. We want her vision to be reflected in the city and not that of Mohd Ali Road. We will appeal for votes as the Mahayuti Alliance by promising development and more development; corruption-free civic administration and providing all civic services to all citizens in a time-bound manner. When Nitin Gadkari was the PWD minister he had built as many as 52 flyovers in Mumbai which has helped vehicular traffic. The Western Express Highway has been widened to accommodate six lanes and the coastal road has been a big boon to Mumbai. The proposed jetty at Gateway will boost water transport.
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