Summary:
He argued that the Finance Commission needs to take into account backwardness of Vidarbha and Marathwada while using population as the parameter for fund allocation. The suggestions were made to the 15th Finance Commission led by former revenue secretary NK Singh. They have also sought a special grant of Rs 50,000 crore to Mumbai and Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) for infrastructure development and Rs 35,000 crore each for five years to underdeveloped Marathwada and Vidarbha to remove regional imbalance. Addressing agri distress, Patil urged the Finance Commission to consider a special mechanism apart from drought relief. The ruling and Opposition parties in Maharashtra want to increase divisible fund to 50 per cent from 42 per cent..