Promising a time-bound policy to give a boost to textile, agriculture and irrigation sectors besides scouting for ores and promoting mines in Vidarbha till 2019, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis Friday blamed partisan politics of the last five decades for the region lagging on the development front. Singling out Congress and NCP for backwardness of the region, he said statutory development funds of Vidarbha were diverted to Western Maharashtra, and this had thwarted irrigation and agriculture projects in the cotton belt of Vidarbha. Citing the Adarsh Mishra report on regional imbalance, the CM said, “The findings said that crucial posts in key sectors were kept vacant and projects could not be completed. The funds remained unused. The Congress and NCP government then diverted the funds to their chosen districts.” Fadnavis said, “Maharashtra’s growth is not possible unless we tackle imbalance in Vidarbha, North Maharashtra and Marathwada.” Fadnavis said that between 2008 and 2011 more than Rs 6,000 crore from the plan set aside for projects in Vidarbha under directives of the Governor - who is in charge of Statutory Development Boards for backward regions - were diverted to a handful of constituencies in western Maharashtra. From the non-plan budget, Rs 4,214 crore (2010-11) was diverted. The chief minister said that between 2008 and 2011, Rs 9,600 crore was utilized by Congress-NCP in regions where they had their strongholds and it was more than what was sanctioned in the budget. Fadnavis pledged his government’s commitment to development of Vidarbha by pronouncing major time-bound reforms, leading with completion of 102 irrigation projects in Amravati, Buldhana, Akola and Nagpur by 2015. Work on ongoing projects that completed 50% and 75% work would be expedited without any need of seeking permission of the revised estimate committee. A budget of Rs 2,100 crore would be for revival of water conservation projects centred on revival of “malgujari talav” (ponds) through desilting to expand water storage across Vidarbha. The national irrigation project at Gosikhurd worth Rs 16,000 crore would be completed by 2017 and is expected to bring 2.5 lakh hectares under irrigation. Ten lakh agriculture pump connections within a one year and five lakh solar pumps are also high on the CM’s agenda. According to Fadnavis, “A Rs 500-crore budget would be allocated for the next five years under the National Agriculture Scheme.” Apart from strengthening agriculture infrastructure, including new cold storages for crops and seeds, he announced two hi-tech orange processing units in Amravati and Hinganghat. Announcing a textile hub spread over 100 hectares at Nandgaon in Amravati district, he promised an investment of Rs 2,000 crore in the next two years. The project would be on public private partnership (PPP) with nine major private companies willing to invest. To make power tariff more competitive with states like Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, the government will allow private players to adopt an open access policy. There would be no surcharge on power generation. He announced another Nagpur Improvement Trust without dissolving the existing one. Detailed modalities would be worked out.
