Would bring sustainable development within a year: Fadnavis

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said here today that his government would bring about sustainable development within a year with priority given to development of the last man of the society.

Speaking on 'Vision Maharashtra' during his tour to the district, Fadnavis said his government's priority is to ensure speedy and sustainable development of the state.

"Unless Maharashtra is developed, there cannot be any development in Vidarbha and Marathwada. We aim to reach out to the last man of the society," he said.

On the crucial drought situation prevailing in many parts of the state, Fadnavis said that around 29,000 villages across the state are reeling under drought and that state government's proposal to scrap the existing system of crop loss survey has been accepted by the Centre.

"There are 25,000 villages under facing acute water scarcity. We have decided to set up 3,000 small weather forecast units across the state which would be monitored by remote sensing system. Crop damage would also be now assessed through this system," he said.

On the agriculture front, the chief minister stressed on providing moisture security (referring to better irrigation facilities) to farmers and efforts are on to produce more energy including the solar energy.

"I have taken stock of energy production and supply system and found that there is lack of planning on this front. Though we have infrastructure for producing 1700 MW energy, several units are lying defunct and the reason is inadequate coal supply," he added.

He said that he has taken up the matter with Centre and it has accepted the proposal for ensuring better coal supply.

On cotton and other food grains, the chief minister said that unless more processing units in the cotton belt are set up, the commodity will not fetch good price.

Fadnavis also paid homage to freedom fighter and former state minister Jawaharlal Darda here on his 17th death anniversary.

Rajya Sabha MP Vijay Darda, former state minister Rajendra Darda, MlA from Arni Raju Todsam and others were also present.