Munde demands Rs 200 cr for sub-canals to Jayakwadi dam

Aurangabad, Maharashtra, Sep 17: Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Gopinath Munde today demanded immediate allocation of Rs 200 crore for the construction of new canals and renovation of the existing ones to the Jayakwadi project, one of the only major project in the Marathwada region.

Addressing a news conference before leading a morcha to the divisional commissionerate here to highlight the plight of the flood affected people in the Marathwada, Mr Munde expressed his displeasure over the negligible use of water for the irrigation purpose from the Jayakwadi project due to lack of canals to the dam.

There was not even five per cent of water from the dam used for agriculture in the region, despite the dam achieving maximum storage level of water in last two consecutive years, he said.

The former Deputy Chief Minister blamed the Democratic Front (DF) government for lack of planning in proper distribution of water from the dam and demanded immediate allocation of Rs 200 crore for the renovation of existing canals and construction of new ones to the dam.

He reiterated his demand for setting up new water commission to prepare a concrete plan for the distribution of the water from various dams and creating new resources for the water.

Mr Munde who had visited 196 villages of the total 400 flood affected villages in Marathwada, also demanded complete rehabilitation of the flood-affected people.

''When the government can make a provision of Rs 12,500 for the rehabilitation of the flood-affected people surrounding the Mithi river in Mumbai, why a similar approach should not be adopted by the government for the complete rehabilitation of the people living on the banks of the Godavari river in Marathwad?'' he asked.

During his 15-day 'Goda Parikrama', Mr Munde met about 5,500 flood affected people of the region and travelled about 2,000 km by car while walked about 250 km. The BJP leader said he had decided to visit to 197 villages of the region, but could not make it to village Sadegaon in the Jalna tehsil due to heavy rains. But, he plans to undertake a visit to the village sometime in the fortnight.

In the legislative assembly, Mr Munde raised four demands including change of corp pattern, setting up of a new water commission, complete rehabilitation of the flood-affected people and renovation of canal and construction of sub-canals in Marathwada.

Mr Munde who represent the legislative assembly from Renapur in Marathwada's Beed district expressed his desire of setting up of a non-political forum to highlight the issues related to the development of the backward Marathwada region.

He also demanded that Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh should convene a meeting of the MPs, MLAs and other public representatives of the region in order to understand the issues in the wake of the floods in Marathwada.

UNI