Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said on September 17 he hoped the Narendra Modi-led Central government would financially aid the water-grid project in the arid Marathwada region.
Mr. Shinde was speaking in Sambhajinagar (formerly Aurangabad) on Marathwada Liberation Day.
“The State government has earmarked ₹15,000 crore for the Marathwada water-grid project. We have also asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for assistance and are confident of securing support from the central government,” said Mr. Shinde, adding that the State government was trying to divert excess during the monsoon towards the Godavari river basin.
NaMo programme
Mr. Shinde said Maharashtra would implement the NaMo 11-point programme - an array of welfare measures, to commemorate the PM’s 73rd birthday.
“The first programme will be called the ‘NaMo Women Empowerment Campaign’ under which various government schemes will cover 73 lakh women. As many as 40 lakh women will be connected with self-help groups, while 20 lakh more will be connected with ‘Shakti groups’,” Mr. Shinde said.
The CM earlier hoisted the flag to mark the 75th Marathwada Liberation Day, observed annually to mark liberation of the region from the yoke of the Nizam of Hyderabad by Indian forces on September 17, 1948. The region comprises Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Nanded, Latur, Jalna, Beed, Parbhani, Osmanabad and Hingoli districts.
At a special cabinet meeting held in Sambhajinagar on Saturday, Mr. Shinde had announced a development package of over ₹45,000 crore for the region.
Mr. Shinde further said that to draw inspiration from the Marathwada liberation struggle and keep alive the sacrifices of the martyrs of 1948, two crore rupees had been allotted to erect memorial pillars in every district of the region.
Mr Shinde said that comprehensive development of the region began only under the current State government. He took aim at former CM and Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray, stating that the latter had lacked the “political will” to ensure Marathwada’s development.
“Our government successfully renamed Aurangabad and Osmanabad to Sambhajinagar and Dharashiv. Uddhav Thackeray’s government failed to do so in the two-and-a-half years it was in power,” said the CM, remarking that Mr. Thackeray’s eleventh-hour attempt to carry out the renaming at the last MVA cabinet meet had been haphazard, given that the former CM did not even have the right to hold the cabinet when his government fell.
Coup was inevitable
Mr. Shinde, whose intra-party revolt split Mr. Thackeray’s Shiv Sena in June last year, aligned himself to the BJP with his rebel Sena faction to form a new government, toppling the tripartite MVA government of the Sena (UBT), NCP and Congress in the process.
“One needs a CM who has political will and the trust of his partymen. Had we not overthrown the MVA, could we have assisted Marathwada in the manner we are doing now?” he said, claiming that Maharashtra would have regressed further economically had the MVA regime been allowed to run its full five-year course.
Criticizing Mr. Thackeray’s recent tour of Jalgaon and Nashik, Mr. Shinde said when the former CM really ought to have toured the State, he had preferred to stay at home.
“You [Uddhav Thackeray] never gave time to your own MLAs, forget visiting farmers and touring the State. Neither did you visit the Mantralaya, nor did you let anyone see you,” said Mr. Shinde.
