Will protest if Marathwada water grid plan is scrapped: BJP

Senior BJP leader and former state water supply minister Babanrao Lonikar on Friday warned of an agitation if the Uddhav Thackeray government scrapped the water grid project for Maharashtra's Marathwada region.

Marathwada, with eight districts, has traditionally been a low-rainfall area and the grid project aims to create an integrated piped network linking 11 dams to supply water for drinking, industrial and agricultural purposes all through the year.

Addressing a press conference here, Lonikar said the project, for which the previous Devendra Fadnavis government had sanction Rs 4,293 crore, would solve drinking water woes and provide all-year irrigation.

On Thursday, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar had said the project's feasibility had to be examined, though he added that the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government would not scrap the project.