Kartik Lokhande's blog

09-03-14 Only 8.12% of forest land required for irrigation projects is Zudpi Jungle By Kartik Lokhande The much-trumpeted ‘decision’ on Zudpi Jungle fails to provide any relief as far as irrigation projects in rainfed region of Vidarbha are concerned. Of a total forest land required for irrigation projects (excluding Gosikhurd and those under Vidarbha Irrigation Development Corporation) in Nagpur Division, only 8.12 per cent is ‘classified’ as ‘Zudpi Jungle’. Thus, unless there is dedicated effort to clear total forest land required for these projects, rainfed region of Vidarbha will continue to suffer for protection of forest. The irrigation projects in Vidarbha are under Water Resources Department (WRD) circles, Vidarbha Irrigation Development Corporation (VIDC), and Gosikhurd national irrigation project. As soon as the ‘decision’ regarding simplification of procedure for ‘diversion’ of Zudpi Jungle was announced by Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan with much fanf

06-03-14 * The region will lose 92,115 Hectares of Zudpi Jungle land for any projects in future as proposal is to notify this land as ‘reserved/protected forest’ * Zudpi Jungle land has not been denotified, only the encroachments and non-forestry uses on said land have been regularised * No relaxation in payment of NPV for projects on Zudpi Jungle land, as State will have to seek exemption from payment of NPV from the Supreme Court By Kartik Lokhande Devil lies in details, it is said. The ‘decision’ announced by Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and claim that the years-long Zudpi Jungle issue had been resolved providing a huge respite to Vidarbha region’s projects, is actually a smart ploy to inflict more loss than gain on the region. The ‘decision’ was presented in such a manner that almost all construed as ‘denotification’ of 86,409 Hectares of Zudpi Jungle land. However, the circular issued by Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) does not use the word ‘denotifi

 (Published in The Hitavada CityLine on February 28, 2014)

27-02-14 * BJP pits Nitin Gadkari (Nagpur), Hansraj Ahir (Chandrapur), Ashok Nete (Gadchiroli), Nana Patole (Bhandara-Gondia), Sanjay Dhotre (Akola) * AAP fields Wamanrao Chatap (Chandrapur), Prashant Mishra (Bhandara-Gondia), and Bhawna Wasnik (Amravati) * NCP announces candidature to Praful Patel (Bhandara-Gondia), Navneet Rana (Amravati), and Krishnarao Ingle (Buldhana)  Staff Reporter With seasoned Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), and first-timer Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) declaring lists of candidates from some Lok Sabha constituencies in Vidarbha, political atmosphere for Lok Sabha elections has started heating up. Now, all eyes are Congress which is yet to declare its candidates. As expected, BJP has announced ticket to Nitin Gadkari, former National President of the party, from his home-turf Nagpur. Gadkari was tipped to contest from Nagpur and he also had dropped enough hints in this regard. Already, he had started consolidating the

27-02-14 * Oppn warns of going to the court of law if evidences given by its leaders have not been considered while preparing the report By Kartik Lokhande Finally, after two extensions, the Special Inquiry Team (SIT) constituted to probe multi-crore rupees irrigation scam submitted its report to Water and Land Management Institute (WALMI). Now, it remains to be seen if the report is tabled before State Legislature on Friday, which is the last day of session for vote-on-account. Confirming the development to ‘The Hitavada’, SIT chief Dr Madhavrao Chitaley said that he had submitted the report to WALMI Chief Engineer on Wednesday. He refused to divulge details or content of the report saying that it would not be appropriate before the report was tabled before State Legislature. However, he said that the report ran into 800 pages and was in two volumes. “One volume pertains to observations of the committee and another is mostly annexures like maps, charts, letters etc,” he

February 27, 2014 ABLE-AG welcomes MoEF’s approval to GM crops field trials New Delhi, February 27: Industry body Association of Biotech Led Enterprises- Agriculture Group (ABLE-AG) has welcomed removal of the restrictions on the previously approved field trials of GM crops by Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC).  On Thursday in a press meet Union Environment & Forest Minister Shri Veerappa Moily approved the March 2013 decision of the GEAC to allow more than 200 successful gene modification trials for rice, wheat, maize, castor and cotton. The long-awaited next meeting of GEAC is now scheduled for March 21, 2014. “We are hopeful that the next GEAC meeting will clear the new applications before the coming Khariff season,” said Shri Ram Kaundinya, Chairman, ABLE AG while welcoming Shri Moily’s announcements.  Dr N Seetharama, Executive Director ABLE-AG said, “We laud Shri Moily’s reaffirmation of his faith in the power of technology. At a time when

25-02-14 Governor directs ‘correction’ in region-wise expenditure By Kartik Lokhande  Vidarbha legislators have been accusing the Democratic Front (DF) Government for diverting the funds meant for the region to Rest of Maharashtra (RoM). The DF Government has been refuting it. However, an interesting piece of information in the latest Governor’s Directives sheds a new light on this. In the directives for the year 2014-15 released on Tuesday, the Governor has asked the Government to make ‘corrections’ for excess/shortfall of expenditure from financial year 2008-09 to 2012-13. The ‘corrections’ are to be made in next three financial years -- 2014-15, 2015-16, and 2016-17. In the earlier directives, the region-wise corrections on account of excess/shortfall in expenditure were carried out up to the financial year 2008-09. However, WRD had indicated that the figures of the opening balances of the Irrigation Development Corporations as on April 1, 2009 were ‘wrongly r

25-02-14 Governor slams DF Government over non-compliance of directives, again * Expresses ‘concern’ and ‘displeasure’ over slow pace of liquidation of backlog By Kartik Lokhande Democratic Front (DF) Government appears to have made non-compliance to the Governor’s Directives a regular feature. Once again, it has drawn flak from the Governor over non-compliance of directives, slow pace of liquidation of backlog, non-submission of reports as suggested by him, not carrying out feasibility study of energisation of agricultural pumps using solar energy, and various other aspects. The Governor has expressed ‘concern’ that various issues have still ‘not been resolved in a satisfactory manner’. These issues include those related to governance, mechanism for revised administrative approvals and re-appropriation of funds, land acquisition and rehabilitation, forest clearances, and filling up of vacancies. He has dubbed these as some of the primary reasons of ‘slow pace’ of l

23-02-14 Cable TV digitisation yields results: Rise in entertainment duty recovery * Before installation of set top boxes in Nagpur district, cable TV connections were only 88,000. At the end of January 2014, the number has increased to a whopping 4.99 lakh By Kartik Lokhande Digitisation of cable television or installation of set top boxes (STBs) met with opposition and criticism from cable operators one year ago. However, digitisation appears to have yielded positive results for the Government at least on the count of revenue collection. As against the target of Rs 22.90 crore for collection of entertainment duty in six districts of Nagpur Division, Revenue Department has recorded recovery of Rs 22.03 crore, that too, at the end of January itself. The targets and recovery relate to financial year that starts on April 1 of a year and ends on March 31 of the next year. As against the target of Rs 21.15 crore for 2012-13, the recovery of entertainment duty was Rs 1

19-02-14 * Assuming different names, these fake ‘agriculture helpline services’ are duping jobless persons by asking them to pay ‘security deposit’ for 1,200 jobs By Kartik Lokhande  Some people can use unemployment to create ‘self-employment’ for themselves, albeit in an illegal manner. After duping countless many in northern states of the country, the fraudsters are eyeing jobless persons in Vidarbha by promising jobs in the name of Kisan Call Centre or similar names. It has come to fore when one Virendra Ramdas Hadge, who had applied for job with Agriculture Kissan Call Centre after reading an advertisement in a local newspaper, was asked to pay ‘security deposit’. “I was shocked as the website of IFFCO Kisan Sanchar Limited (IKSL), which has been recognised by the Government of India to recruit manpower in Kisan Call Centre, did not show Agriculture Kissan Call Centre as an affiliate. I feel that authorities must act against such fraudulent entities so that jobless

15-02-14 * The purchaser has to just pay ‘nazarana’, which amounts to forty times the land revenue on a particular piece of land Staff Reporter Now, permission of District Collector will not be required to sale or lease out tenancy lands. The purchaser will have to just pay an amount that is forty times the land revenue on the said piece of land. This will help the builders and developers in getting tenancy lands without the ‘time-consuming’ procedure, and at a very low cost. Revenue and Forests Department has issued a circular regarding the amendments in tenancy laws on February 11. As per the circular, prior permission of District Collector need not be obtained before sale of lands distributed under tenancy rights. The laws to which amendments have been made include Bombay Tenancy and Agricultural Lands Act, Hyderabad Tenancy and Agricultural Lands Act, and Bombay Tenancy and Agricultural Lands (Vidarbha Region) Act. Amendments have been made to Section 43, Section 50