Mumbai: Maharashtra governor C. Vidyasagar Rao on Saturday urged the Centre to provide financial assistance of Rs 7,180 crore for completing 114 irrigation projects in 14 farmer suicide-prone districts of the state. He requested the Centre to consider this proposal ‘as a special case’ on account of the serious agrarian distress in these districts.
Participating in a discussion on improving public services, the governor also made a fervent appeal to devolve all powers, as are enshrined in the 73rd and 74th Amendment of the Constitution to panchayats and municipalities so as to achieve the developmental goals of New India 2022. The governor raised these issues during his intervention in the Conference of Governors, which concluded at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Saturday.
Incomplete irrigation projects have become a big liability for the state, as their overall cost keeps increasing.
Referring to the issue of safety of railway passengers, the governor called for improving coordination between the Government Railway Police (GRP) and the Railway Protection Force (RPF). He further requested the government to increase the strength of the GRP ‘suitably’, which he said had remained stagnant since 1982.
