Maharashtra: Shirdi Saibaba Trust gives Rs 500 crore for Nilwande Dam
Mumbai, Dec 2 : The Shri Saibaba Sansthan Trust, which manages the saint's samadhi at Shirdi in Maharashtra's Ahmedanagar district, will provide Rs 500 crore to build a canal network for a dam.
The Nilwande Dam is located on Pravara River and is expected to benefit 182 villages in Sangamner, Akole, Rahata, Rahuri and Kopargao tehsils in Ahmednagar district and Sinnar in Nashik.
A senior official of the Trust said a Memorandum of Understanding had been signed with the state government's Godawari-Marathwada Irrigation Development Corporation in this regard.
"The trust will give Rs 500 crore for the project but will not charge interest on it," he said, though he refused to divulge details of tenure of repayment etc.
The official said the temple trust provides money for social work regularly but the amount it had allocated for the Nilwande Dam was "huge" and a "rare thing".
A state Water Resources department official said the Nilwande Dam had begun storing water but the right and left bank canals needed to be built for it to be used for irrigation and drinking water purposes.
The Nilwande Dam, this June, received Rs 2,232 crore under the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sanjivani Yojana.
The Shirdi-based temple trust had earlier provided Rs 50 crore to the Maharashtra Airport Development Company for the construction of the Rs 350-crore airport there. The airport, located at Kakadi village, is now operational.
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“Statue or grassroots football?” German vlogger questions priorities after Messi statue in Kolkata
Kolkata: A 70-foot iron statue of football legend Lionel Messi, recently installed at the Sree Bhumi Sporting Club in Lake Town, has drawn massive public attention and sparked a debate online after a Germany-based vlogger questioned the priorities behind the project.
The statue, which depicts Messi holding the FIFA World Cup trophy, has become a major attraction for football fans in the city. However, German travel vlogger Alexander Welder shared a video on Instagram expressing surprise and criticism shortly after landing in Kolkata, Hindustan Times reported.
In the clip, he appeared visibly stunned as he reportedly said, I just landed in Kolkata, India, and it turns out Lionel Messi is here. The GOAT himself is in freaking Kolkata, India, and behind me they built a freaking 70 tall statue of Lionel Messi. Check this one out here. It feels like I am in an Argentina football game at the World Cup and not in India.
According to the report, he went on to question the speed and priorities involved in constructing the statue. This is crazy, guys. And apparently, they built this statue here in only 40 days. I do not know what the locals think about this, because the metro here literally took decades to build, the streets are broken, so many things do not work, but for the GOAT himself, they only need 40 days to build the largest Lionel Messi statue in the world here.
In the comment section of his own post, Welder added another pointed remark, writing, “Build a statue of another nations player holding the World Cup… or… Use funds to support grassroots football in your own country to improve chances of making their first ever World Cup… Hmm I wonder which one India chose.” HT quoted him as saying.
As per the report, the video has since gone viral, drawing mixed reactions from social media users. One user wrote, “Messi has fans all over the world, this is just passion for football.” Another said, “Instead of mocking, maybe understand Indian football culture first.”
A third commented, “He is not wrong about grassroots football though.” Another user remarked, “Kolkata has always loved football, this is nothing new.” One reaction read, “The statue may not be perfect but the emotion is real.” Another remarked, “This is embarrassing and impressive at the same time.”
