Mumbai, December 7: MPCC President Prataprao Bhosale feels that the Democratic Front government has done enough talking on the financial mess left behind by the Sena-BJP government and now it is high time that the Congress-led government took some concrete steps to restore the financial credibility of the state.``I feel that we have spoken a lot on the financial mess handed to us by the Sena-BJP government. Now, we will have to initiate concrete measures to improve the situation,'' Bhosale told The Indian Express.Bhosale felt that the Front government headed by Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh will have to to draft a multi-pronged strategy to tackle the situation. ``It will have to drastically cut the administrative expenditure and take hard decisions on loss making state-run enterprises,'' Bhosale added.Elaborating his contention, Bhosale said at a juncture when the accumulated losses of the state-run enterprises have reached an all time high of Rs 900 crore, it was necessary to asses the viability of such enterprises. ``Give them a fresh trial but if their performance is very poor, will have to take hard decisions on such enterprises,'' Bhosale added.Bhosale also said though the government has drafted a development plan, it will have to speed up its act so that the benefits reach the needy segment in a time bound period. ``Certainly, a multi-party government has its administrative problems. But even under such circumstances, the government will have to ensure that result-oriented, progressive schemes are drafted and implemented in a time-bound period,'' he stressed.Again, on the performance of the two-month old government, Bhosale felt that though it was satisfactory, adequate steps will have to be taken to implement the manifesto in letter and spirit. ``We will have take immediate steps to implement the manifesto, particularly for the members of the minority communities,'' he added.The new government will have to give emphasis on employment generation and steady supply of power to the farm sector. ``As a farmer, my opinion is that if there is greater investment in the agriculture sector, it will generate more employment,'' he said.Bhosale also said the new government will have to restore the powers of the zilla parishads and panchayat raj institutions, which were truncated during the Sena-BJP rule. ``I have been told that the powers of these institutions were drastically, as a result the very purpose of setting up these institutions was defeated. The new government will have to chalk out a comprehensive action plan to decentralise the power structure,'' he remarked.On the power tariff, Bhosale said it will be the duty of the new government to ensure that not only there is a steady supply of power, but also there is no hike in the rates. ``I feel that if the functioning of the state electricity board is streamlined, there will be no need to hike the power rates,'' he said.Bhosale said though he was not aware of the exact financial position of the board, certainly it can garner additional revenue provided generation and transmission losses are drastically reduced and power thefts are curbed.
