Union power minister Piyush Goyal sought to put the onus of the agrarian crisis in Maharashtra on the previous Congress-NCP government, even as he lauded Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis for providing drinking water to Latur through train wagons. Mr Goyal also announced that the Damodar Valley Corporation which operates several power stations in the Damodar River area of West Bengal will register a profit in the current year.
-"Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar was worried about irrigation way back in 1944 and today, it is so unfortunate that Chief Minister Fadnavis has inherited such a severe crisis of water. There is such a bad situation in terms of irrigation in the state because of terrible political management of several years,-" said Mr Goyal while addressing a gathering on the inaugural of a two-day international conference on Dr Ambedkar’s thoughts.
“I am in fact delighted that CM Fadnavis has taken proactive measures like the Jalyukt Shivar to ensure that small check dams come up all across the state and water can be stored and conserved,” he said.
The Damodar Valley Corporation was the only Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) in the coal and power sector, which, until last year, was making losses, said Mr Goyal. -"Unfortunately for bad management, bad leadership of the sector, it is the only PSU in the coal and power sector which, until last year, was making losses. I think it is a fitting tribute to Dr Ambedkar that in his 125th birth anniversary year, the Damodar Valley Corporation will register profit after several years in the current year,-" he said.
The Minister said that the Sagarmala Project, which had been launched on Thursday through the Maritime Summit, would generate 1 crore jobs and an investment of Rs 1 lakh crore. -"We have excellent inland waterways which could have been used for navigation. But we have lost seven decades in making use of these inland waterways,” he added.
