Difficult measures ahead to curb fiscal deficit: Fadnavis

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis today said that "difficult measures" would be taken in the near future to check the fiscal deficit.
"The current revenue deficit of the state is Rs 26,000 crore. If we were to complete only the development projects launched by the Congress- NCP government, we will still need to borrow another Rs 52,000 crore," Fadnavis said.
"To avoid this we will have to take some tough decisions. People might think we are behaving like the previous rulers. But keep in mind that our tough decisions will only be for the betterment of Maharashtra," said the Chief Minister while launching BJP's membership drive in the state here.

Fadnavis said the state was committed to providing special relief for drought-prone villages and get them declared as drought-hit.
"Only the Centre can declare villages as drought-hit. But we are leaving no stone unturned to get these villages declared drought-hit," he said. "Usually we have to first submit a memorandum to the Centre, after which Central authorities do panchnama.... We have requested the union agriculture minister to scrap the panchnama process for a swift decision," he said.
Saying that perception about the country had changed, he said, "The consulate general of Spain met me today. He said his country was keenly observing the situation in India after Modi government came to power. He also said if there was one country they would want to continue friendship with, it was India. This is all due to the investor-friendly environment the Modi government has created."

Claiming that though the alliance with Sena broke overnight, he said BJP could still do well in the polls because of the last two years' groundwork at the booth level.
"We worked hard even at the booths in Assembly seats that were not supposed to be contested by us," he said.