Vidarbha council urges Govt to step up development work

Vidarbha council urges Govt to step up development work
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

NAGPUR, JAN 2: Vidarbha Economic Development Council (VED) has expressed concern at the Government's lack of interest in the development of the Vidarbha region.

Addressing a press conference here on Saturday, Vilas Kale, president of VED appealed to the Government to take immediate steps for developing the vast potentials of mineral and industrial development of Vidarbha. However, the Government must first get a feasible report prepared to find out the viability of projects in the underdeveloped region, he said.

Kale said unless there exists a proper economic development report, it won't be able to possible to take up any project in the region. Unfortunately so far the Government has not even asked any agency to prepare a development report for Vidarbha.

On its part VED had commissioned Mckinsey and Company to make a preliminary report on potentialities of Vidarbha. Mckinsey prepared a report, `Unlocking Vidarbha's economic development' which VED submitted to the Government last year. Mckinsey had alsocommitted itself to participate and undertake implementation of the project. However, the Government rejected the report on the ground that it was not viable and that a similar study in Andhra Pradesh-`Vision 2000' done by the same agency had not been found to be very encouraging.

According to Kale, VED does not insist that the Government must accept in toto the report filed by Mckinsey. If the Government feels there are flaws in the report then it must appoint some other competent national or international agency to prepare an economic development report for Vidarbha after studying the potentials here. Good projects can be worked out in mineral, agro-based or food-processing industry.

There is a provision of Rs 2 crores in the Vidarbha Statutory Development Board for getting an economic development study report of Vidarbha prepared by any competent agency. The Government has not utilised that fund for the last three years, said Kale.

Kale lamented the fact that lack of planning has resulted in Butiburiindustrial estate near Nagpur remaining backward with most big industrialists shying away from the region. It is pathetic to see Government not making a sincere move to develop the backward regions of the state, he said.

Kale informed VED submitted a memorandum to Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh with regard to the problems arising out of the backwardness of the Vidarbha region and requesting him to appoint an agency to prepare a developmental report. If the region is developed prospective investors too would be interested, he pointed out. The CM promised all help after looking into the issue.

There must be a time-bound action programme for development of Vidarbha region, he demanded.

VED has also written a letter to the Governor Dr P C Alexander and state cabinet ministers to look into the matter.