New engineering, two medical colleges in Vidarbha

Winding up a debate in the State Assembly on neglect of Vidarbha region initiated by Virenda Jagtap (Cong), Opposition Leader Eknath Khadse (BJP) and others, Chavan said officers at the level of Deputy Collector posted in Vidarbha region and particularly backward areas like Gadchiroli do not take up the posting by giving some excuses.

But the government has decided to deny promotion to such officers and the next junior officer would get the opportunity for promotion, he said, adding fresh state cadre officers joining the service in Maharashtra would now get their first posting in Vidarbha.

He said that the government has decided to open an engineering college in Nagpur and one medical college each in Gondia and Chandrapur district of region.

Chavan also said the government was following up with the Centre for payment of pending dues to speed up the completion of irrigation projects.

He said the Centre has not released Rs 900 crore for the Gosikhurd project from the Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme (AIBP).

Speaking about energy generation, Chavan said load shedding was brought down from 18 per cent to 3.9 per cent this year adding the state government was disappointed with power generation from Dabhol as it was producing only 600 MW power against the capacity of 2200 MW due to paucity of natural gas.

Intervening in the debate, Speaker Dilip Walse Patil suggested that Maharashtra should urge the Centre to take over the Dabhol project and divert the power generated in the national grid and the state should then procure power from the national grid which would be cheaper than the present system.

About controversy over setting up of thermal power plants in Vidarbha in the private sector, Chavan said water is the prime concern and the state was to figure out how much water should be released for such projects and how much should go to farmers for irrigating crop.