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Journalism of Courage
IN the national consciousness, Latur registers only as the epicentre of the devastating 1993 earthquake. Visitors to the backward Marathwada region would, however, encounter a thriving, three-lakh-populated urban centre. And the most conspicuous symbol of this is a Rs 24-crore three-tier flyover-cum-subway, the only such marvel in the country. Besides, there are four- and three-lane roads, a state-of-the-art sports complex and a 1,000-acre MIDC estate.
On the anvil are a broad-gauge conversion project for the 25-km Latur to Latur Road junction stretch a government medical college, a 220-KV power sub-station and an APMC complex.
All of which, of course, would make for unqualified good news if Latur wasn’t Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh’s own constituency, and surrounded by places like Osmanabad, Nanded and Solapur, where development is an alien word. District Collector Rajiv Jalota dismisses the ‘‘pampered’’ theory as ‘‘unfounded’’, but adds that extra road development funds have been unusually accessible for the area.
‘‘The CM factor has given a boost to infrastructural development in the MIDC. But barring funds for roads, not much else is coming from the government,’’ he says.
Social activist Atul Deulgaonkar, however, believes the new flyover is just an instance of the town losing out on more pressing needs. ‘‘It’s a cosmetic addition,’’ he says. ‘‘Simple road widening could have solved the traffic problems around the Shivaji Chowk junction.’’
That, for critics, is the crux of the issue. The narrow gauge railway crossing is located near the town’s main highway junction at Shivaji Chowk, which is ostensibly why the flyover has been built. Trains, incidentally, pass through the junction four times a day.
The Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation, which executed the project, however, vehemently denies the ‘‘cosmetic addition’’ charge. ‘‘We have the data and technical support to show it was a necessity,’’ insists Public Works executive engineer Himanshu Shrimal. ‘‘Nearly 1.10 lakh vehicles pass the junction in 24 hours.’’
But few can deny that for the leader of a cash-strapped government, Deshmukh has been exceptionally generous with funds for Latur. In fact, when Minister of State for Railways Digvijay Singh came to inaugurate the flyover on March 17, he also announced commissioning of the BG work. But critics point out that unusually enough, the Maharashtra government is participating in it.
‘‘The government has committed over Rs 30 crore,’’ defends Jalota. ‘‘It may be an exception in Maharashtra, but state participation is not new in states like Jharkhand.’’
So far as the sports complex is concerned, says Jalota, it was envisaged in an old policy that sought one such complex in each district. ‘‘Much of the development,’’ he adds, ‘‘can be traced to post-quake period, to the rehabilitation schemes and the sugarcane industry. The work has only encouraged further investment.’’
(with Bakhtiyar Tangsal and Satyajit Joshi)
