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Main » 2010»February»2 » Centre doles out special treatment to Bundelkhand
1:07 PM
Centre doles out special treatment to Bundelkhand
ApnaBundelkhand.com, NEW DELHI: Politically charged
Bundelkhand — the backward region which has been turned into a
battlefield
between UP CM Mayawati and Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi —
will
be granted special category status, meaning Centre will meet 90% of the
cost of
irrigation projects for the drought-hit region.
Sources said a
high-level committee headed by Planning Commission secretary Sudha
Pillai has
approved the proposal to grant special category status at par with
drought-prone
areas, implying that districts in the region will get 90% grant
assistance from
Centre under Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme (AIBP).
With
the adoption of 14 districts of UP and MP under AIBP, the move will help
in
mitigating water scarcity in the water-scarce region which is wholly
dependent
on monsoon because of a poor irrigation network. With the fresh move,
Bundelkhand region will be treated at par with areas covered under
Drought Prone
Area Programme which will ensure 90% central funding for irrigation
projects and
rejuvenation of water bodies.
"While states normally have to
bear 75% project cost, special category status areas bear only 10%
cost,”
said a senior official, adding that currently, drought-prone pockets of
Orissa,
hilly states, north-eastern states and J&K were among beneficiaries
under
the scheme.
Ironically, the political competition between
Congress-ruled Centre and BSP-ruled UP has come as a ray of hope for the
parched
region. With the Centre clearing the proposal, the BSP regime in UP will
have to
make a formal proposal in the form of viable projects to the
Congress-headed UPA
to bring the idea to fruition.
The move is in sync with Rahul
Gandhi’s strategy to regain Congress’s lost constituency in
politically crucial UP by pursuing development agenda over politics
while
attacking BSP chief Mayawati of doing the opposite.
Bundelkhand
turned into a political battlefield between BSP and Congress since Rahul
launched a campaign two years ago by targeting the Mayawati regime.
The demand to create a Bundelkhand Development Authority across UP
and MP to take up development touched off a controversy as BSP and BJP
protested
it as Congress’s attempt to gain political foothold through the back
door.
