It could pay for a micro-irrigation programme to bring water to thousands of farmers over two years; pay for new rural roads seven times over; electricity projects five times over; restore 300 medieval forts in Maharashtra. But the Maharashtra government, on October 26, started work on the world’s tallest statue – of medieval Maratha monarch Shivaji – off Mumbai’s coast and intends to spend Rs 3,600 crore, at current estimates. […]