Wainganga–Nalganga link project: Tender process in 2024- Fadnavis

Staff Reporter

The State Government is working on war-footing to launch the Wainganga–Nalganga river-linking project. The Government will float tenders in the first half of 2024, said Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, in the Council on Wednesday. “The Government is determined for development of Vidarbha. The link project will completely change the identity of Vidarbha from drought-prone to developed region,” said Fadnavis while replying in the House to a debate on the Vidarbha issues. “This Rs 88,275 crore link project will irrigate 3,71,000 ha land in 15 talukas and 6 districts of Vidarbha. The survey has already been completed but due to some technical issues the National Water Research Institute (NWRI) asked us to make some changes in its dependability. We re-conducted the survey and now in the next Cabinet meeting we will approve the proposal and send to NWRI with changes it suggested and we are hopeful of floating tender in 2024,” said the Deputy Chief Minister.

In the State budget for the year 2023-24, the government has already given Rs 5,666 crore for various big projects of Vidarbha. “This year, Gosikhurd project got Rs 1,500 crore and we believe in 2024 end or in the first quarter of 2025 the Gosikhurd project will be completed,” said the Dy CM. While talking about ‘Baliraja Jal Sanjeevani Yojana’, Fadnavis said, “When the government raised the issues of drought and farmers suicide before the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he without any question declared Baliraja Jal Sanjeevani Yojana for Maharashtra in which 80% work will take place in Vidarbha and 20% project is for the rest of Maharashtra.” Under this scheme, the government released Rs 15,800 crore for 59 projects which will irrigate 1.73 lakh ha land in Vidarbha. Whereas, 35 small projects are already completed till March 2023 and 12 more projects will complete till 2024 end, said Fadnavis in the house.

While talking about development of Gadchiroli, the Deputy Chief Minister said, “Gadchiroli is going to be the next ‘Steel City’ of India and this district has the potential to generate revenue of Rs 50,000 crore in near future.” The opposition initially raised question over issuing land for Lloyds Steel project in Gadchiroli. However, the project has already got investment of Rs 21,220 crore and I like to mention that the first phase of this project in Konsari has completed and for the second phase the project is getting an investment of Rs 15,000 crore, said Fadnavis. Fadnavis said, “After July 2022, the Mahayuti government gave revised administrative approval of 29 old irrigation projects which were pending till 2020. We gave green signal to all these projects and now we have prepared 41 more projects for revise the approval. After getting the approval of these 41 projects, there will be no old projects left for any administrative approval.”

Crime rate reduced in State under MahaYuti Government: Fadnavis

While replying the Opposition’s question on reason of high crime rate in Maharashtra, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, on Wednesday, said, the population is the main reason behind rise in crime rate in the State. Still, it ranks way below other States in the country. Fadnavis also said, the crime rate has dipped in the State under MahaYuti Government. “We can not do the evaluation of ‘law and order’ through numbers or statistics. The evaluation should be done on the basis of perception of safety. The number of cases could be anything in metros like Mumbai and Delhi. But the fact is that the women feel safer in Mumbai than Delhi at midnight. Therefore the evaluation should be done on the basis of this fact,” said Fadnavis. Mentioning about centre’s zero tolerance policy, Fadnavis said they had started a crackdown on the drug cartel and peddlers and put 24,000 accused behind bars. “During the regime of Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), only 5,000 violators were arrested. Even drug mafia Lalit Patil’s first factory started under the MVA rule in 2020. We have now started a Narco controlling centre ‘NCORD’. We are also taking action against online betting and gambling and sextortion, which is a new menace,” he added.

While talking about crime cases in Nagpur, Fadnavis said, the city is safe and crime cases across all sectors are reducing. In 2021, 95 murder cases were registered, which was reduced to 65 in 2022. In MVA tenure, Nagpur was second in the state for murders in 2021, which stands at seventh position in 2022. It was fifth in the crimes against women in 2021 and sixth in 2022 and in rape it slipped to sixth position from fourth. In Dowry cases, Nagpur registered only two incidents and was one of the lowest in India,” said the Deputy Chief Minister.