CM rolls out slew of steps for irrigation, farmers

Amravati: Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday announced a series of measures to expedite irrigation projects, give relief to farmers, improve administration, remove backlog, upgrade health services and cancel local body tax.
Addressing a press conference after a review meeting with MPs, MLAs, MLCs and secretaries, Fadnavis said that his government, which gave a five-year extension to statutory development boards in the state, would follow every direction given by the governor under section 371(2) of the Constitution for the balanced development of the regions.“It was never done by the previous governments,” he said.
The chief minister blamed the previous government for leaving a legacy of a revenue deficit of Rs26,000 crore for him and said that his government has approached the Centre for giving relief to farmers reeling under drought-like situation. “We have demanded an aid of Rs4,500 crore to counter drought and requested the Centre to not insist on individual panchanamas but provide relief to all the 19,000 villages which it has agreed to. In a couple of days we will send a memorandum to the Centre after which a central team will visit the state and declare drought,” he said.
Stating that 2,700 transformers in the state are in a burnt state, Fadnavis announced to replace 450 of them in Amravati division in 10 days. “We believe that farmers must survive and get water. We will replace 200 transformers in the first phase and 250 in the second,” he said. He also said that illegal connections on transformers would be regularized on the spot without asking for dues pending with farmers.
Fadnavis said that in order to expedite settlement of land awards, 14 deputy collectors, 8 tehsildars and 3 additional collectors would be appointed in Amravati division within a week and those refusing to take up these posts would be subjected to strict action. He said that the Centre has agreed to clear projects stuck up for forest land clearance in 15 days after the state and central officers concerned met and discussed while those stuck up for revenue land clearance would be cleared in a month.
About the backlog projects, Fadnavis said that 102 would be taken up on priority as they promise greater irrigation potential. “These projects have been languishing for administrative approval for two years. We will grant 20 of these projects administrative approval within 15 days and the others would be cleared in a time-bound manner,” he said. The chief minister also said that a crash programme of energizing 20,000 agriculture pumps would be taken up in six distressed districts of Vidarbha. He said that a scheme has been planned to shift the current pumps from electricity to solar energy in these distressed districts which would ensure uninterrupted power supply, day-time power and help reduce subsidy rate. “A draft of this plan would be announced during the budget session,” he said. The plan would be first implemented in six suicide-affected districts, then in other parts of Vidarbha and some parts of Marathwada and finally in the state, he said. Fadnavis also announced to set up 13 new high tension power sub-stations in Amravati region.
He regretted that despite being revenue headquarter, Amravati lacked basic health facilities. Fadnavis announced to set up MRI, CT scan, sonography and digital x-ray units on top priority at district general hospital and district women’s hospital. He also announced to set up a blood bank each at Achalpur and Churni and neo-natal ambulances at Dharni. He also announced to install 2,065 weather machines at the zone level to help farmers. “We will issue tenders in this regard in December,” he said and added that to provide more insurance and more assurance to farmers, help of remote sensing technique would be taken.
Fadnavis also said that a provision of Rs30-35 crore would be made available to resolve land acquisition issue impeding development of airport.
Fadnavis reiterated that his government would not wait for GST to repeal LBT. “We will not wait for GST. We will cancel LBT before it. We are considering 2-3 alternatives. We get Rs14,000 crore out of octroi and LBT. We want to retain this figure till GST comes so that we keep getting this much assistance from the Centre even if GST goes,” clarified Fadnavis in response to a query.
MP Ramdas Tadas, MLAs Sunil Deshmukh, Anil Bonde, Ravi Rana, Prakash Bharsakle and MLC Pravin Pote were present at the press meet.
Earlier, the CM visited Morshi and inaugurated the Eco Tourism Park there.