| A senior official from state government's water resources ministry said, "Earlier the central government used to give grants and loans only for medium and large irrigation projects. Under the AIBP, since December 2005, the central government has allowed the states to claim grants for minor irrigation projects and asked them to submit a list of ongoing projects before February 15." |
| The total cost of all these projects is around Rs 150 crore and under AIBP norms, state's share will be 20 per cent, central government will give the grant of 24 per cent and rest will be loans from the central government. |
| "The moment the central government announced that minor irrigation projects could get a grant, officials and elected representatives from Western Maharashtra, started working on projects which could be submitted under the AIBP and sent a list of projects to us much before the deadline. They were even willing to make minor amendments in the original project, the official added. |
| However, no such enthusiasm was shown by the officials in the rest of Maharashtra and representatives from these areas even didn't know that central government has changed the guidelines to include minor irrigation projects. |
| "It was at the Mantralya level that we had to conduct a series of meetings to get the list of projects from other regions," he said. |
| The official further said, "Apart from AIBP, central government will also give financial assistance under the Bharat Nirman Programme to the irrigation projects and the state is ready with a detailed plan of more than 800 projects which will irrigate 17.60 lakh hectares of land. The total size of the plan is Rs 16,650 crore and we are only waiting for the centre to come up with the guidelines. We are pushing for 50 per cent grants from the centre under the Bharat Nirman Programme," he added. |
Top Section
Explore Business Standard