Mumbai, Oct 20 (IANS): Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday held the previous Democratic Front and Maha Vikas Aghadi regimes responsible for introducing the system of contractual appointments in government services while the current MahaYuti is being blamed for "privatising" government jobs.

He said that the first decision to this effect was made in March 2013, when Sushilkumar Shinde was the CM, for the Education Department, and later the first contractual recruitments started when Ashok Chavan was the CM, and continued under the tenure of CM Prithviraj Chavan.

The recruitments were carried out in various categories of posts like teachers, drivers, clerks, data entry operators, for periodic or short-term requirements, Fadnavis added.

When the MVA CM Uddhav Thackeray was in power, contractual appointments were taken up in September 2021 through a contractor, said Fadnavis, seeking to turn the tables on the Opposition onslaught.

"This was their sin which they are trying to pass on to us… Why should we bear it? So we have cancelled the Government Resolution for contract recruitments of the previous governments. Will the MVA leaders now apologise to the people of Maharashtra," he asked.

Fadnavis' revelations came even as the government has been under fire from the Opposition which has accused it of privatising government jobs and making recruitments in the police department and others on contract basis.