Some villages in North Maharashtra's Nashik district have demanded that they should be included in Gujarat because they presently face apathy and lack of development, a local leader of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) claimed.
Even after 75 years of Independence, many villages and Padas (hamlets) in Surgana taluka of Nashik do not have basic amenities. If you cannot develop these villages, merge them with Gujarat, NCP’s Surgana taluka chief Chintaman Gavit said.
The demand follows a recent row over Karnataka Chief Minister’s claim that villages in Jat tehsil in southern Maharashtra once wanted to merge with his state. He presented a memorandum to this effect to tehsildar Sachin Mulik on November 30, he told PTI.
This does not have anything to do with any political party. Residents of Subhash Nagar, Dolare, Alangun and Kathipada villages have come together for this demand and there are many others. Gujarat’s Dharampur taluka is 15 km away and Wasda is 10 km away. We frequently go there and we are seeing the difference in development for years now, he said.
In border areas of Gujarat, there are good roads, reliable electricity supply and health, water and transport facilities, he claimed.
On Maharashtra side there are no good roads, no 24×7 electricity and people face water scarcity every year. There are no irrigation projects. As a result, the farming depends solely on monsoon. People have been migrating for livelihood for years, he added.
The Maharashtra government should either fill development backlog or allow these villages to merge with Gujarat, the memorandum handed over to the tehsildar said.
Water scarcity is our main problem. As per government statistics, there is only one per cent irrigation in our taluka. There is no major project barring Borgaon dam. People do farming in the monsoon and leave for places like Niphad, Chandwad and Pimpalgaon to earn livelihood, Gavit said.