What will Economic Survey say on irrigation figures?

(Published in The Hitavada on March 18, 2013)

What will this Economic Survey say on irrigation?

 * Agriculture Deptt has stuck to its data showing only 0.1 per cent rise in area under irrigation in past 10 years

* Finance Department to show 5.17% rise as reflected in White Paper on Irrigation released last year

By Kartik Lokhande

MUMBAI, Mar 17: Though budget is an important document, all eyes in Maharashtra will be on Economic Survey for the year 2012-13 that will be presented on March 19. In particular, all eyes will scan the page of the survey that reveals rise in area under irrigation, against the backdrop of political storm caused by the figure of only 0.1 per cent rise in irrigated area in the last survey.

Once the figure was revealed in Economic Survey of Maharashtra for the year 2011-12, Congress had used it to corner its alliance partner Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan himself had questioned as to where had the huge allocation of Rs 72,000 crore made in favour of NCP-led Water Resources Department (WRD) gone in past 10 years if there was rise of only 0.1 per cent in irrigated area. It set in a political storm. Further revelations of contractor-bureaucrat-politician nexus in ‘The Hitavada’ series titled ‘Black Paper on Irrigation’ and how the unholy nexus had siphoned off money meant for creation of irrigation facilities, forced the Government to announce probe into the matter.

Meanwhile, as part of damage control exercise, NCP-led WRD brought out a White Paper on Irrigation and claimed that irrigation in the State had risen by 5.17 per cent in past 10 years. There was an all-out war between the lead opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and NCP as both traded charges of involvement in irrigation scam. By the time, Congress had withdrawn its aggressive stand over the issue as Deputy Chief Minister and NCP heavyweight Ajit Pawar had resigned from the post. Pawar had faced the heat as most of the allocation was made to WRD during his tenure as Water Resources Minister.

However, the controversy did not die down completely. Reacting to observation in White Paper that Agriculture Department did not update its figures regarding irrigation scientifically, Agriculture Minister Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil (a Congress leader and a bête noire of Ajit Pawar) had claimed that his department’s figures were correct. After winter session of State Legislature held at Nagpur in December, however, the heat over the issue was missing.

Now, it is learnt, Agriculture Department has stuck to its claim of only 0.1 per cent rise in irrigated area in its note submitted to Finance Department for inclusion in Economic Survey of Maharashtra for the year 2012-13. Ajit Pawar, who is heading Finance Department that publishes the survey, has obviously rejected the claim though not directly. It is gathered that Economic Survey document shows 5.17 per cent rise in irrigation, in consonance with White Paper on Irrigation. The survey reportedly shows this figure of WRD with a foot-note regarding WRD’s stand on the contentious issue.

Ajit Pawar will present the state budget on March 20, and Economic Survey is likely to be presented on March 19. It will be interesting to see if Pawar plays political game by rejecting Congress-led Agriculture Department’s data and including NCP-led WRD’s data. In that case, watching Congress’ reaction to this also will be interesting.