A well-attended rally of farmers was organised today to draw the attention of Maharashtra Government towards the urgent need of starting the inter-State Lower Penganga River Irrigation project approved in 1997.
The 'Jal Kranti' rally was held at the Nagar Parishad Stadium in Pandharkawda town near here in Vidarbha.
The project envisaged Maharashtra and neighbouring Andhra Pradesh sharing the Godavari waters by building a dam on the Painganga River.
Most of the speakers at the rally were Congress leaders. Among them were former Maharashtra Ministers Shivajirao Moghe, Vasant Purke and Ramchandra Reddy from Andhra Pradesh.
Giving details about the project, Moghe said the administrative approval for it was granted by the State Government in 1997 (when Manohar Joshi of Shiv Sena was CM) on the basis an award announced in 1975 by the Godavari Water Dispute Tribunal.
According to the award, Maharashtra can use all the Godavari waters up to Lower Penganga Project site near village Chikhalwardha on Penganga River.
The initial estimated cost of the project was Rs 1402.43 crore, which went to Rs 10429.39 crore in 2009 and is now a whopping Rs 17,000 crore, Moghe said.
Maharashtra signed an MOU with Andhra Pradesh in 1998 and agreed to share the water in ratio of 88:12 per cent. Yavatmal and Chandrapur districts of Maharashtra were to get 62 per cent and 26 per cent of the waters, while Adilabad district (now in Telangana) was to get 12 per cent.
Moghe said the previous Congress-led Democratic Front Government succeeded in fulfilling all pre-conditions for launching of the project.
It is now the duty of BJP-Sena Government to allocate adequate fund and flag off the project if it is sincere in abridging the irrigation backlog of Vidarbha and stem farmer suicides in the region, Moghe said.
