M'rashtra to spend Rs 1.20 lakh cr under 12th Plan

Maharashtra planning commission's executive chairman Ratnakar Mahajan today unveiled state's plan of Rs 1.20 lakh crore under 12th plan.

The plan document advises state government to undertake massive soil-conservation and watershed management programme to achieve the 4 per cent annual growth in agriculture sector.

Addressing a press conference, Mahajan said, "Soon this will be tabled before State Development Council (SDC) which will be created on the lines of national development council (NDC), after approval from SDC, plan will come into force".

In the national plan the target for growth of agriculture sector has been kept at 4 per cent and we have accepted the same target for the state, he said.

Even after state achieves its full irrigation potential, nearly 70 per cent of state¿s agriculture will be rain fed farming, so to improve the productivity of rain fed farming state needs to undertake massive soil conservation and watershed management scheme.

At present rate it will take another 42 years to achieve the target of 156 lakh hectares, even if we made all out efforts, this period can be reduced to 20 years. And to realise this dream, state needs to provide at least Rs 2,000 crore every year over next five years.