The Vijay Kelkar Committee, formed to “suggest measures for removal of regional imbalance” in Maharashtra, has recommended “100 per cent free irrigation and power facilities” to farmers of Marathwada and Vidarbha regions to stop suicide by farmers.
The Hindu has accessed the synopsis of the committee report, which was submitted to Maharashtra government in October 2013, but the previous Congress-NCP government decided not to make it public.
Set up by former Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, under the leadership of former Finance Commission chairman and noted economist Vijay Kelkar, the 571-page report recommends that if “the blueprint of balanced development is not properly implemented, sub-state status or statehood for Vidarbha is considered to be an alternative”.
The report has directed the government to restructure Regional Development Boards (RDB) with the Chief Minister as the Chairman and their “empowerment” by entrusting planning, approval, execution and monitoring as well as its further enhancement by establishing separate regional secretariats.
The report, expected to be tabled in the Assembly in the ongoing winter session here, also advised the government to give a fixed amount of Rs.2,000 a month per household, which possesses less than five acres of land, “at least” for the next three years.
Other recommendations include Rs. 5 to 10 lakh business loan for dairy farming, horticulture, sericulture, cattle farming, fisheries to rural youths and a rebate in sales tax and reduction in interest rates on borrowed capital in the lagging (Marathwada and Vidarbha) regions to boost manufacturing and attract private investors.
The high-level committee has advised the State government to “decentralise” water resource management and to set up a system of measuring tribal development index on an annual basis.
Green Bonus should be sanctioned to scheduled areas that conserve forest resources and the bonus and royalty earned from mineral resources to be “ring fenced” for the development of the host region.
The report is expected to attract criticism from leaders of the Western Maharashtra region.Source: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/kelkar-panel-recommends-100-free-irrigation-power-to-farmers/article6717616.ece
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