NEW DELHI, FEB 19: Chief Minister Narayan Rane today expressed confidence that the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance would come back to power in the assembly elections early next year, saying the alliance had become `strong' following the recent change of leadership.Rane, on his first visit to the capital after taking over as Chief Minister early this month, told reporters that his government would launch massive efforts to complete within the next one year the various schemes launched by the alliance government so far.The Chief Minister, who had a meeting with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee yesterday, said he has requested the Prime Minister for an early Central action in regard to the problem posed by the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) in Mumbai as also the `zudpi jungle' in Vidarbha, which have hindered the pace of development.(Vidarbha has a lot of area known as zudpi jungle which has been shown in government records as forest land but has hardly had any vegetation)The Chief Minister also requestedVajpayee for an early clearance to the proposed international airport at Parule Kudal in Sindhudurg district of Konkan region. He also wanted early Central action in regard to four new rail projects in the state as also more allocation to the Varora-Umred and Ahmednagar-Parli Vaijnath rail projects which have already been approved by the Centre.Rane denied that Maharashtra was facing any financial crisis and said the state had experienced some difficulties in view of the implementation of the Fifth Pay Commission recommendations which posed an additional burden of Rs 5,000 crore on the state exchequer.Earlier, addressing the National Development Council meeting, he urged the Centre to reward good performance of the state with higher Central assistance.
