for Vidarbha. "This a time-bound programme for all-round development of the region and will be implemented in three years," said Chavan assuring the house that he would personally monitor it in co-ordination with the chief secretary.
A quick analysis of the package, however, showed it was a re-jig of ongoing projects in major sectors like irrigation and roads, accounting for more than Rs 5000 crore . The promise of filling up all vacant posts in backward Vidarbha is difficult to achieve while Central funds for improving education infrastructure could be a big help. "State public service commission's recruitments in Grade A and B remain vacant in Vidarbha. But the government has decided to make it binding on all selected A and B grade staff to work in Vidarbha for their first posting for a fixed tenure," Chavan stressed.
"From the allocation of Rs 3165 crore, as many as 20 irrigation projects will be completed and include medium dams of Lower Vena in Nagpur district , Purna and Chandrabhaga in Amravati district and Utawali in Buldhana and 16 small projects in the region. It will also include two major dam work of Gosikhurd and Khadakpurna," the CM announced amidst thumping of desks by treasury bench members in the state assembly. On completion, the projects would increase irrigation capacity by over 57,000 hectares, he said. The Rs 2062 crore to be spent on roads will include completion of ongoing four-laning of five major roads covering 222 kms and four new four-laning works covering a distance of 437 kms.
Asked to respond to the opposition charge that the package had nothing new, CM said there were several new components and effective results would be seen on the ground in next three years. However, it was clear that the allocations in the project would not help much in wiping out the developmental imbalance of the region which has only gone up since the last evaluation some 15 years ago.
The proposed spends on several social sector proposals like Rs 10 crore for Ambedkar international convention centre in Nagpur, Rs 5 crore for a museum of relics and artifact collected by Ambedkar's associate Wamanrao Godble , setting up of Ambedkar Foundation here to promote research and publication of the Dalit icon's literary works, Rs 10 crore for development of a Buddhist theme park at Futala lake in the city, Rs 2.5 crore for Koradi temple development, Rs 5 crore for Banjara community's Pohara Devi pilgrim centre in Washim were obviously the Congress-NCP government's electoral politics - a thanksgiving to voters for choosing the coalition for third time in a row.
Enhancing floor space index to 2.5 for housing schemes by MHADA undertaken on the allocated 24 hectares of land from ULC surplus pool and also to housing for poor by Nagpur Improvement Trust may indeed go a long way in meeting the growing demand for housing. Under such schemes, it would be possible for MHADA to provide 40,000 new houses in Nagpur and another 12,000 in Amravati, Chavan claimed.
This may cool down unrealistic real estate rates in the second capital to some extent. Setting up of 100-bed maternity hospitals at Chandrapur and Gadchiroli meets the long-pending public demand, proposal to spend Rs 1386 crore for anti-Naxal operation and development of Gadchiroli dfistrict find place in the package too.
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