Kartik Lokhande's blog

Staff Reporter The issue of zudpi jungle has since long proven to be a big hurdle in the all-round development of Vidarbha region. A total of 1,78,000 hectares of land was spread across six districts of Vidarbha under the category of ‘zudpi jungle’. The Government has divided the land into two categories, and this will make available 86,409 hectares of zudpi land for deforestation to pave way for various projects, said Sudhir Mungantiwar, Forest and Finance and Planning Minister. Mungantiwar was replying to a debate on supplementary demands in Legislative Assembly on Monday. He informed the House that 92,116 hectares of the zudpi land actually had forest on it. Hence, that land will be given to Forest Department for forest management purposes. As far as deforestation of 86,409 hectares of land was concerned, Revenue Department has been asked to prepare tehsil-wise proposals. So far, Revenue Department has submitted 342 proposals. But, as the proposals had shortcomings,...

  By Kartik Lokhande The first week of the winter session of State Legislature was marked by the usual drill of the Opposition parties raising the issue of farmers’ suicides, drought, compensation and the Government appealing to them to debate on the floor of the House. The only difference this time, however, was that the Government appeared to be more confident and hence more aggressive; while the Opposition was jittery. Every year, the entire State Legislature comprising the Government as well as the Opposition comes to Nagpur, the Second Capital of the State. Sadly, every year, the issue of either drought and farmers’ suicides or demand for statehood to Vidarbha dominates the Opposition charge. As a result, over the years, both these issues are getting diluted in public debate. This year, too, the Opposition parties – Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) – raised the issue of drought and forced adjournments demanding loan waiver and relief package to farmers, but...

* Seeks special session of State Legislature in January to discuss Kelkar panel report Staff Reporter The main Opposition parties -- Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) -- that were divided throughout winter session of State Legislature, came together on the last day of the session. After coming together, both the parties flayed BJP-Sena Government in State for being ‘insensitive’ to farmers issues and said that the winter session had been a ‘big disappointment’. Both the Opposition parties blamed the new Government for tabling Kelkar Committee report towards the end of the session, and demanded a special session of State Legislature in January to discuss the contents of the report. However, asked why the Congress-NCP Government failed in tabling the report since October 2013, Leader of Opposition (Assembly) Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil said, “Because of various reasons, it could not be tabled, but the new Government should have tabled it at the beginning of...

* Accuses Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis of being ‘insensitive’, to take out morcha of farmers on Monday By Kartik Lokhande  In what could be called a role-reversal, Congress party decided to boycot the customary tea-party hosted by Chief Minister on the eve of commencement of winter session of State Legislature. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had invited various political parties for customary tea-party but informed them that he would not be present as he was attending a crucial meeting called by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi regarding Planning Commission. “Not attending the customary tea-party on the eve of winter session shows lack of seriousness on part of Fadnavis Government. This is insult of healthy legislative tradition. Hence, we decided to boycot the tea-party,” said Manikrao Thakre, President of Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC). Addressing a press conference on Sunday afternoon, Thakre accused the Chief Minister of being ‘insensiti...

28-03-14 State Government constitutes division-level committees for effective co-ordination among Water Resources, Agriculture, and Co-operation departments, and to ‘reduce’ the difference By Kartik Lokhande There is a huge difference of 16 lakh hectares in the figures of irrigation reported by Water Resources Department (WRD) and Agriculture Department in Maharashtra. No, this is not a wild allegation. This ‘disparity’ has been officially recognised by the Government itself. In fact, to ‘reduce’ this ‘disparity’, the Government has decided to constitute division-level committees. The last time, Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan himself had quoted from Economic Survey of Maharashtra and stated that there was only 0.1 per cent increase in area under irrigation in the State in last 10 years despite spending huge amount of Rs 72,000 crore. This had kicked up a storm. Soon, this snowballed into a major controversy leading to revelation of infamous irrigation scam. It led to ...