Farmer suicides in Vidarbha have raised a chorus of demand for Central relief package from Maharashtra Government. But successive State Governments have simply not accorded priority to irrigation for the water-starved region. The State is yet to act on over a dozen projects cleared by the Union Government since 1992. Facing fire for agrarian crisis, Maharashtra has often cited stringent provision of Forest Conservation Act 1980 for inability to go-ahead with irrigation projects for Vidarbha.