Nagpur: The Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court has sought a response from the Maharashtra Government following accusations by the Loknayak Bapuji Aney Smarak Samiti (LBASS) of discrimination against Vidarbha in the allocation of funds for irrigation projects in the State budget.
LBASS convenor Avinash Kale brought attention to the alleged disparity, stating that the government had allocated a mere Rs 2,000 crore for addressing the irrigation backlog in Vidarbha. In contrast, he claimed that Rs 10,000 crore had been earmarked for two districts in western Maharashtra, namely Pune and Sangli.
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Kale asserted that the required funds to eliminate the entire backlog in Vidarbha amount to over Rs 55,000 crore, raising concerns about the perceived imbalance in the distribution of resources. In response to the LBASS’s accusations, a division bench consisting of Justices Nitin Sambre and Abhay Matri orally sought a reply from the Maharashtra Government. The court’s inquiry into the matter was prompted by the disparity in funding highlighted by Avinash Kale.
During the hearing, the Maharashtra Government requested time to prepare a comprehensive response to the accusations of discrimination in the allocation of funds for irrigation projects. Consequently, the division bench adjourned the hearing, providing the government with the requested time to present its reply.
The LBASS oral submissions came while hearing a PIL by it through counsel Bharti Dabhadkar regarding 45 incomplete irrigation projects, which it claimed led to the spate of farmers suicides in Vidarbha over the years. In its affidavit filed in response to the chief secretary’s affidavit regarding the status of all irrigation projects, the petitioner contended that all these were pending from 1980 to 1998.
“The irrigation potential is created on 4,27,55 hectares out of 10,98,411 hectares land. Only 40% irrigation potential is created within a span of 10 to 15 years which is a matter of big concern for farmers of Vidarbha region. This clearly indicates the respondents are not at all serious about the burning issue of irrigation due to which thousands of farmers are committing suicide,” Kale, a veteran lawyer, said.
According to the petitioner, the government had given the final approval date of all Type-I projects between 2002 to 2011. However, the date of approval of most Type-I projects was between 2004-2008. “This shows that in 15 years, only 22 projects have been completed and 23 projects are yet to be completed. This is nothing but casual approach being adopted by the respondents. To conceal the facts of the status of the projects the respondents mentioned that those are ‘completed or under progress’.
On Type-II projects, the NGO said of the 33, eight were completed, 19 are in progress, 5 are cancelled and one has not commenced, as per the government.
“The final approval received for these projects was between 2004 to 2018. It shows that after having obtained the final approval, an average time period of 10 years has passed. Still out of 4,58,896 hectare, 3,97,834 hectares are yet to be irrigated. It shows the callous and inhuman approach on part of respondents towards the farmers of Vidarbha region,” Kale said.
According to him, the respondents have casual approach, apathy, inactiveness, lethargy, lack of seriousness towards completion of irrigation projects in Vidarbha, which is leading to inordinate delay in their completion.
“The major irrigation projects are situated in Vidarbha but the main office of State Level Technical Advisory Committee (SLTAC) is situated at Nashik and Pune, which causes a delay in completion of initial work in respect of their designing as well as in respect of revised administrative approval (RAA),” he said while praying to HC to constitute an experts’ committee, to look into the issues raised in the PIL so that work on various pending projects would be expedited and farmers would be benefitted.
The petitioner pointed out that though there is a comprehensive policy on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) for funding irrigation projects, respondents failed to submit the detailed report of funds received till date, which shows that the said schemes are only on paper. “The HC needs to constitute an expert panel to study the government resolutions (GR) of April 10, 2015, and March 2, 2016, to make funds available for various projects in the region,” he said.
This development underscores the significance of equitable resource allocation and raises questions about the allocation strategy for critical projects in different regions of Maharashtra. The High Court’s scrutiny adds a legal dimension to the ongoing debate over the perceived discrimination against Vidarbha in the budgetary allocation for irrigation initiatives.
