Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao opened his heart in an interview with Abhijit Mulye and Prakash Kulkarni on the eve of Maharashtra Day. As he discussed several topics, he elaborated how he perceives the potential of the state. He also cautioned the people of certain challenges and appealed them to take on the challenges. Excerpts…
What have been your impressions of Maharashtra afterassuming charge as Governor of the state?
I had been engaged in the development of rural areas in my earlier political life. After assuming charge as Governor of Maharashtra, my efforts became more focused. I realized that there are several responsibilities vested in a governor. The governor is a head of the state. That brings in several constitutional duties along with it.
Soon after assuming charge of Maharashtra, I had to assume the responsibility of the entire administration, as the state went under president’s rule due to the political situation. The governor also carries out the responsibility as Chancellor of the universities across the state. Maharashtra has 20 such universities having an estimated student enrolment of 3 million. The governor is also the constitutional head of the scheme of development boards and patron of several non-governmental organisations. But, apart from all these responsibilities, the governor is entrusted with special responsibility regarding administration of scheduled areas under Schedule V of the Constitution, that is primarily the tribal belts of the state. I’m happy that I could work on this front. I could take some decisions that would bring a positive change in the lives of the tribal population of our state.
What are the decisions?
The Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act (PESA) has been there since 1998. But, the act was not being implemented because the rules to implement the act were not in place. For 18 years the act lay as it was. The first thing we did was to get the rules framed under PESA. Another important decision we took was to grant the rights of ownership over minor forest produce to tribals. This one thing has several implications. Primarily this helps to establish the tribal population’s rights over the minor forest produce like the bamboo, Tendu leaves, gum etc. They have also been giving rights over fishing. This would help them preserve their livelihood. They now have an avenue to earn what was going to the middlemen or the contractors. They can earn lakhs of rupees. This would give them the much needed economic power to survive in this world.
The other major decision regarding tribals is to release the 5% Tribal sub plan funds to the Gram Panchayats in the Scheduled Areas in proportion of the population. The tribal sub plan funds are being allocated for several years. But, have hardly been used earlier. Now, the tribal villages would be able to decide what they need and get those works done through the funds allocated to their village panchayat. This would give them more autonomy. Would help the tribal villages to develop new livelihood avenues like developing their village tanks and carryout economic activities like fishing. We are also planning to develop hatcheries for their benefit.
What about the urban area and other parts of the state?
As I’ve been entrusted with the responsibility of heading the development boards under article 371 (2) of the Constitution, I have ensured that the allocation of funds for the irrigation projects in the Marathwada and the Vidarbha regions would be in such a way that it tries to do away with the imbalance of development.
Apart from this initiative for equitable distribution of resources, Swachch Bharat Abhiyan is another initiative that has received a tremendous response.
The drive had one more interesting spin off in case of Mumbai. While we were at the J J Hospital on the cleanliness drive, the Dean of the Hospital told me that patients from all parts of Maharashtra visit the hospital, but the beds are grossly inadequate. He complained that the expansion of the hospital had been affected by the heritage tag attached to the hospital building. I spoke to the concerned officials and the hurdles were removed. The hospital has received necessary funds and soon 1,000 additional beds would be created.
Q.What are your impressions regarding the potential of the state?
The state has tremendous potential. We have natural resources, industriousness, heritage, all the necessary things. They form the core of the potential of the state. Mumbai is being seen as the financial capital of the country. But, I feel that the city has all the things to develop into the financial capital of the world. I would like the city to attain the status. The state also has a tremendous potential in several other fields. The state has given largest number of intellectuals to the country. The state has given the largest number of social thinkers, saints to the India. We have such a rich heritage. We should be able to use it. I have been interacting with several of the international delegates. They appear to be eager to join hands with us either in
the field of industries or the tourism or the agricultural. We should be able to build on this enthusiasm.
What are the challenges and how would be able to overcome them?
Education is the biggest challenge that we are facing. We need to ask ourselves whether our educational institutions are imparting quality education. What I realized during my tours to the tribal areas was, that due to some kind of prejudices, the ‘Ashram Shalas’ (residential schools) in the tribal areas did not have provision for teaching science at the junior college level. When I asked why was it so, I was told that we won’t get science teachers in the area. But, I realized that not much effort was made to overcome the problem. This means we are denying the opportunity to tribal boys and girls to become doctors, engineers and nurses. I have now instructed them to overcome this problem and start science education at all tribal schools. During my interactions with students from the schools, I met several girls who wanted to pursue nursing as their career. Several boys told me that they wanted to become doctors and engineers. But, by denying them the basic education in science, we have literally closed doors of all these possibilities on them. We have to be watchful of and avoid such things. This would help us in making the state attain its number one status in the country in the truest sense of the term.
