MUMBAI: Maharashtra has taken a lead in land acquisition and has successfully acquired 7,000 hectares of land in past two years. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis was commended for the success during the meeting of chief ministers of BJP ruled states with Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier this week.
The success is being highlighted by the government on the backdrop of opposition to most ambitious project of Mumbai-Nagpur Samruddhi Corridor over the issue of land acquisition.
“Several projects in the state had stalled for several years due to problems in land acquisition. The state government took pragmatic decisions and formulated policy for giving higher compensation to farmers even though the Central government has its own law in place. The compensation, that is generally five times the ready reckoner rate, had crossed market rates at times. This has helped the state government to push several stalled irrigation and railway projects,” a senior CMO official has said.
Prime Minister Modi reviewed progress on the front of infrastructural projects in BJP ruled states at the meeting in Delhi on Monday (Aug 21). It was realised that the Maharashtra has taken a lead in implementation of several other schemes of the Central government apart from advancing the infrastructural development, the official said.
Previous governments had been able to acquire hardly 200 hectares of land for two major rails projects in Vidarbvha and Marathwada. However, this government acquired over 2,000 hectare of land in last two years. Also negotiations are in the last stage for another 1,500 hectares of land. This will ensure that the projects would be completed soon. The state government has also acquired 5,000 hectares of land for irrigation projects in past two years, the officer said.
The feat on the front of acquisition of land for the irrigations projects has been reciprocated by allocation of around ` 2180 crore from the central funds and the NABARD. This would help the state to complete 26 irrigation projects adding 3 lakh hectares to its chunk of irrigated land, the officer added.
The state government also fared better in terms of implementation of crop insurance scheme, reforms in agriculture produce marketing committees, digital Bharat scheme, the officer said adding that under the ‘Ujjawal’ scheme the state has given cooking gas to 12 lakh new families, which is the largest number amongst the BJP ruled states.