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Irrigation drives wedge between DF partners
Relations are strained between the ruling DF partners in Maharashtra. Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan (Congress) on Friday indirectly voiced his displeasure over the lack of the initiative by the NCP to increase irrigation capacity in the past decade.
On a day when he implied that things were not all hunky-dory between the partners, Chavan lamented that the irrigation capacity had increased just 0.1 per cent. The CM said he would ask the NCP-controlled Water Resources Ministry to come out with a white paper on the money spent on irrigation capacity building in the last 10 years.
He was participating in a symposium on ‘Maharashtra - Past, Present & Future’ to mark the birth centenary year celebrations of the Maharashtra’s first Chief Minister, the late YB Chavan.
The NCP has been holding the irrigation portfolio — which was renamed as Water Resources a few years ago — ever since the Congress-led DF came to power for the first time in October 1999.
The CM was responding to criticism by Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Eknath Khadse and veteran PWP legislator Ganpatrao Deshmukh, both of whom took the State Government to task for its lack of initiative to increase the irrigation capacity.
Reeling out figures of irrigation capacities of various States, Deshmukh said that as against the 18 per cent irrigation capacity of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh’s capacity stood at 48 per cent, Gujarat at 46 per cent and Karnataka at 32 per cent. Deshmukh attributed the lack of planning to the State’s failure in building the irrigation capacity.
Demanding to know as to who was responsible for the lack of initiative to build irrigation capacity in the during the last one decade, Khadse said: “The state government spent a staggering Rs 70,000 crore during the last ten years and the increase in the irrigation capacity is not even more than 1 per cent,”
Khadse also blamed the state government for wasting 300 tmc of water. “ On its part, Gujarat built the Ukai dam and used the water for irrigation purpose. The agriculture growth rate of Gujarat is 14 per cent in a short span of time,” Khadse said.
Earlier, in his speech at the symposium, Chavan dwelt upon about the difficulties in running a coalition government and said that the decision-making process was much easier when a single party was in power.
“There is an important difference in the political situation that existed during Yashwantrao Chavan’s tenure as Chief Minister and the one which exists today. Then, there was a single party rule, and once there was a consensus within the party, there were no problems in taking decisions and implementing manifestos.
Relations are strained between the ruling DF partners in Maharashtra. Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan (Congress) on Friday indirectly voiced his displeasure over the lack of the initiative by the NCP to increase irrigation capacity in the past decade.
On a day when he implied that things were not all hunky-dory between the partners, Chavan lamented that the irrigation capacity had increased just 0.1 per cent. The CM said he would ask the NCP-controlled Water Resources Ministry to come out with a white paper on the money spent on irrigation capacity building in the last 10 years.
He was participating in a symposium on ‘Maharashtra - Past, Present & Future’ to mark the birth centenary year celebrations of the Maharashtra’s first Chief Minister, the late YB Chavan.
The NCP has been holding the irrigation portfolio — which was renamed as Water Resources a few years ago — ever since the Congress-led DF came to power for the first time in October 1999.
The CM was responding to criticism by Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Eknath Khadse and veteran PWP legislator Ganpatrao Deshmukh, both of whom took the State Government to task for its lack of initiative to increase the irrigation capacity.
Reeling out figures of irrigation capacities of various States, Deshmukh said that as against the 18 per cent irrigation capacity of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh’s capacity stood at 48 per cent, Gujarat at 46 per cent and Karnataka at 32 per cent. Deshmukh attributed the lack of planning to the State’s failure in building the irrigation capacity.
Demanding to know as to who was responsible for the lack of initiative to build irrigation capacity in the during the last one decade, Khadse said: “The state government spent a staggering Rs 70,000 crore during the last ten years and the increase in the irrigation capacity is not even more than 1 per cent,”
Khadse also blamed the state government for wasting 300 tmc of water. “ On its part, Gujarat built the Ukai dam and used the water for irrigation purpose. The agriculture growth rate of Gujarat is 14 per cent in a short span of time,” Khadse said.
Earlier, in his speech at the symposium, Chavan dwelt upon about the difficulties in running a coalition government and said that the decision-making process was much easier when a single party was in power.
“There is an important difference in the political situation that existed during Yashwantrao Chavan’s tenure as Chief Minister and the one which exists today. Then, there was a single party rule, and once there was a consensus within the party, there were no problems in taking decisions and implementing manifestos.
