Shinde's measures to boost economy will be watched

MUMBAI: With his long experience as the finance minister of Maharashtra for nine years, chief minister Sushilkumar Shinde’s steps to improve the state’s economy will be watched with interest.
Significantly, Mr Shinde observed at the Congress legislature party meeting that he would not give priority to reforms which adversely affect the poor. He is one of the few senior Congress politicians not involved in the cooperative sugar movement which is currently involved in a big controversy as recipient of huge subsidies from the debt-ridden state government.
Several experts feel that the government should review the heavy subsidies it is giving for cooperative sugar factories and the cotton monopoly purchase scheme. Agricultural economist and vice-chancellor of Mumbai University Bhalchandra Mungekar said that sugar cane covered barely three per cent of the land under cultivation in the state but grabbed nearly 60 per cent of the irrigation water.
This is socially offending because as many as 80 to 85 per cent of marginal, small and dry land farmers are denied irrigation water even for a single crop.Noted economist V.M. Dandekar had suggested several years ago that 50 to 60 per cent of water should be given to small farmers, Mr Mungekar said.
He said the cotton monopoly purchase should have been wound up 10 years ago. A similar view is expressed by Ratnakar Mahajan, executive chairperson of the state planning board. Mr Mahajan said the cotton scheme was populist and built on extra-economic considerations.
If the scheme is modified there will not be major unrest among farmers. He got the impression after visiting cotton producing areas in Wardha and Amravati districts recently. These experts have conveyed their views to the government in an exercise initiated by the state administration following the recommendation of the Sharad Kale committee to consult academics while preparing the economic survey for the state.
Economist Nilkantha Rath said that the administration should make available cotton prices in neighbouring states of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh so that one could get a correct picture of the functioning of the state cotton federation.
He said the state should also make available figures about industrial units. It is necessary to know the number of industrial units in different sectors which have received one or other type of subsidy from the state and have now closed down, Mr Rath said.
Affluence and extreme levels of poverty co-exist in Maharashtra to a distressing degree, with rapid industrialisation and neglect of the agricultural sector, Mr Mungekar said. There is a general perception that poverty is less pervasive in Maharashtra than in other states. In reality, this is not the case, he said.
True, per capita income in Maharashtra is much higher than in other states but there is also more poverty in Maharashtra than in states like Gujarat, Karnataka and Kerala. Agricultural economist Shashikala Sawant said that excess use of water for sugar cane had led to soil deterioration and other environmental problems.