Good morning India.
Mera Maharashtra Mahan!!!!
The
Financial Express editorial, “IPL vs Sugarcane” (April 8) illustrates the utter
stupidity of the position on holding or not holding IPL matches in drought hit Maharashtra. In reality fewer cricket matches and moving the IPL will only provide water for 400 people for half a year in Maharashtra. Will it “solve” the water shortage problem? I have no love lost to IPL a bloody den of thieves in any case. Yet I would like to look at the problem with a bit of logic and common sense.
If policymakers were serious about alleviating water shortages for the poor, they would first have to blame themselves for the stupidity, if not depravity, of the policies pursued by successive Congress Governments for decades, obviously the governments were run by partners in that crime. In particular, look at the water-guzzling sugarcane crop. In 2014-15, the estimated sugar output from Maharashtra was 10 billion kgs. Each kg of sugar uses 2,000 litres of water. In other words, the total water used for sugarcane cropping in the state was 20 trillion litres. You do the math.
In fact because of the political clout of corrupt politicians, who mostly own
the sugar mills, (Nearly 60 percent pf sugar factories are owned by Ministers and politicians, this was about 10 years ago) the area under sugarcane cultivation is I think, more than six times the percentage limit laid down by the Government. Sugar crops guzzle water like the T72 Tanks of the Indian Army do diesel, more than 2 liters to 1 kilometer or whatever. The sugarcane required to produce 1 Kilogram of sugar, guzzles 2000 liters of water. Maharashtra produces 10 billion kilograms of sugar annually. So vast areas have become drought hit due to non availability of ground water. No one talks of this scene, where the fence eats the Farm.
About Krishna Valley Corporation through which again these rogue politicians made tons of money is not mentioned at all. If this entity had carried out the entrusted job of making check dams and others, droughts would have been a thing of the past. A staggering Rs 35,000 crore was siphoned off and wasted on dud irrigation projects in the past decade. The Maharashtra government has spent Rs 70,000 crore on such projects across the state during this period.The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar was the irrigation minister of Maharashtra during 1999-2009. On 25 April 2008, Deputy Secretary TN Munde issued a circular stating that the Irrigation Department was making exorbitant payments for the various raw materials and components, instead of following the scheduled rates fixed by the department. On 14 May 2008, Pawar's office issued a letter asking Munde to repeal the circular, and cautioned him against issuing any circular without the minister's sanction.
Tonight on Times Now Arnab was trying to act like holier than thou and not allowing sane voices to speak.He did not not have the bloody balls to question the successive governments which ruled Maharashtra since Independence and their Massive Political sugar lobbies, and siphoning off money on dud irrigation projects.
He did not wave around every 2 minutes, data sheets of sugar mills ownership papers as is his want. All of what he was doing was trying to whip up a public emotional outcry sans all valid and logical argument. Mr Arnab if you have the bloody guts question these politicians on your show and ask them their contribution towards alleviating drought like conditions in Maharashtra every few years.
The Reserve Bank of India dissolved the board of the powerful Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank, which had NCP chief Sharad Pawar's son Ajit as one of its directors, based on a NABARD report on the bank's finances which shows how factories controlled by politicians including cabinet ministers from the Congress and NCP took loans worth hundreds of crores and never paid back.
The list includes names like former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, Agriculture Minister Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil and Higher Education Minister Rajesh Tope are among Maharashtra's sugar barons whose families are linked to the fall of the Asia's largest cooperative bank.
Among the loan defaulters is a spinning mill controlled by Congress MLC Amrish Patel, which owes the bank Rs. 182 crore; a sugar factory controlled by the family of Agriculture Minister Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil which has not repaid a loan of Rs. 175 crore; a sugar factory controlled by the family of former CM Ashok Chavan which still owes Rs. 31 crore; Forest Minister Patangrao Kadam's factory which has not paid back nearly Rs. 100 crore and a factory controlled by Water Resources Minister Ramraje Naik Nimbalkar which has defaulted on a loan of Rs. 16 crore. Here are the names of the Politician sugar mill owners who produce sugar using 200 litres of water per kg. Maharashtra produces 10 billion kgs of sugar every year at an expense of 20 trillion liters of water. What are you talking about Arnab? Trains of 5 lac litres of water? a few tankers here and there?
SUBHASH DESHMUKH
BJP;
won Solapur South
Lokmangal
Group; 3 mills; 1.43 lakh tonnes in 2013-’14
AJIT PAWAR
NCP;
won Baramati
Shri
Ambalika Sugar, Daund Sugar, Jarandeshwar Sugar Mills (combined output 2.28
lakh tonnes) have directors said to be linked to him
RAJENDRA PAWAR
Ajit’s
cousin, Sharad Pawar’s nephew
Baramati
Agro mills, Indapur and Kannad; 86,891 tonnes
NITIN GADKARI
BJP;
union transport minister
3factories; 61,933 tonnes
VINOD TAWDE
BJP;
won Borivali
Shreenath
Mhaskoba Mill, Daund; 41,155 tonnes
SIDDHARAM MHETRE
Congress;
former state minister
Matoshri
Laxmi Sugar, Akkalkot; 57,500 tonnes
PRUTHVIRAJ DESHMUKH
BJP;
lost to Cong’s Patangrao Kadam in Palus-Kadegaon
Cane Agro Energy, Kadegaon; 55,064 tonnes
BABASAHEB MOHANRAO PATIL
NCP;
lost to Independent Vinayakrao Jadhav Patil in Ahmadpur
Siddhi
Sugar, Ujana; 53,735 t
RATNAKAR MANIKRAO GUTTE
Rashtriya
Samaj Paksha candidate in Gangakhed; lost
Gangakhed
Sugar & Energy; 54,950 tonnes
BABANRAO SHINDE
NCP;
won Madha
Vitthalrao
Shinde Cooperative Factory, Madha
SANJAY SHINDE
Babanrao’s
brother
Vitthal
Corporation Mill
DILIPRAO DESHMUKH
Vilasrao
Deshmukh’s brother
Jagruti
Sugar & Allied Industries, Deoni
PATANGRAO KADAM
Congress;
won Palus-Kadegaon
Sonhira
Cooperative, Kadegaon
MOHANRAO KADAM
Patangrao’s
brother
Udgiri
Sugar & Power
BABANRAO PACHPUTE
BJP;
former NCP minister; lost in Shrigonda
Shri
Saikrupa Sugar, Shrigonda
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