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Completion of useful irrigation projects priority: Sudhir Mungantiwar

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Sudhir Mungantiwar
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In a bid to boost the scam-hit irrigation sector, the state finance department has decided to complete on priority those pending projects which have lower gestation period and fund requirement but irrigate larger tracts of land.
The state government would also bring out a "white paper" on Maharashtra's finances, said finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar.

To ensure that borrowings were utilised properly, Mungantiwar said they were planning to ensure that loans were raised for specific irrigation and road projects instead of the present system wherein money went into the state's consolidated fund.

Once known as among the best administered states, Maharashtra has gradually slid into the red with a debt burden of over Rs3.04 lakh crore, and an annual interest servicing burden of about Rs23,000 crore apart from new loans of Rs20,000 crore, which have to be raised every year.

"It is not wrong to take loans for development. But these loans must create revenue, wealth and employment, and benefits must percolate down to a larger section. However, (during the previous Congress-NCP regime) loans were used to fund less productive heads," said Mungantiwar.

"In order to complete pending irrigation projects, we will allocate funds in the next budget to those projects which can be completed fast, will need less funds and irrigate larger tracts of land," said Mungantiwar, while criticising those officials who may have kept irrigation projects incomplete for long periods to benefit from cost overruns.

Maharashtra is a water-stressed state and vagaries of the monsoon cause frequent droughts. It has irrigation of just around 18 per cent as compared to the national average of about 45 per cent. The controversy over the sector broke in 2012 when the economic survey said irrigation had risen by just 0.1 per cent to 17.9 per cent from 2001 to 2010 despite Rs70,000 crore being spent on projects.

After allegations of corruption, deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, who was the irrigation minister from 1999 to 2010, had resigned, only to be sworn in again two months later.

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