In the light of growing protests against development projects and increasing conflict about resources, the state government is toying with an idea of giving a share-equity to the project-affected people apart from their rehabilitation entitlements.
, deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar on Saturday said in Nagpur. The move, he added, will ensure that they get regular long-term income.
"The idea is to adequately benefit the people who are losing their land, and taper off the protests and potential conflicts, said Pawar during a meet-the-press programme hosted by the Nagpur Union of Working Journalists (NUWJ) at the Tilak Patrakar Bhawan.
An eight-member committee headed by the chief minister is in place to look into the problems of the displaced.
Referring to the proposed nuclear power project at Jaitapur, he said an investment of Rs1 lakh crore is being arranged for the Konkan region. "We will ensure that Konkan doesn't lose it natural beauty," he said. The government, he said, would not divert water other than the 6% allocated share to the power projects from the irrigation reservoirs.
Maharashtra has 1200 TMC water. Of which, 72% is reserved for irrigation; and the remaining is divided into other purposes; drinking and industries included. He said the government has refused permission to many power plants in Vidarbha only because of non-availability of water, and coal, which is increasingly becoming scarce, he said. Pawar, however, admitted to having allocated some water for the India Bulls’ Sophia power project in Amravati.
Pawar, who holds the power and finance portfolios, though held his position: people must allow power projects for the state's benefit and progress. He said that he was moving a proposal before the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) that the district producing more than 1000 MW of power would be freed of load-shedding as an incentive. With regard to an industry and development deficit in regions like Vidarbha, he said, the state government was open for supporting and incentivizing the investments here, but the role of local public representatives and people should be affirmative. “There has to be a conducive and supportive climate.”
Pawar also allayed fears that the government was pushing thermal power projects in Vidarbha at the cost of the environment and public health, even as the power generated here would go to benefit western Maharashtra. "We do not tell private investors to put their plant at this or other location; it depends on availability of coal etc," he said. "No project can go ahead without union environment ministry's nod."
Pawar suggested that in order to draw industries to Vidarbha where most of the new power projects are under construction, the government could offer an uninterrupted power supply that would give them 16 additional hours of production in a week.
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