Shinde govt revives Fadnavis’ water conservation scheme

Mumbai: The state cabinet on Tuesday approved the second phase of the Jalyukt Shivar Abhiyan (JSA), the flagship water conservation project of the erstwhile Devendra Fadnavis-led NDA government

Mumbai: The state cabinet on Tuesday approved the second phase of the Jalyukt Shivar Abhiyan (JSA), the flagship water conservation project of the erstwhile Devendra Fadnavis-led NDA government.

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The JSA second phase aims to add around 5,000 more villages and expand the ongoing works by making an annual provision of ₹1,000 crore by conversing existing water conservation schemes.

The scheme was implemented for five years till 2019 and ₹9,500 crore was spent on the scheme implemented in 22,593 villages before it was scrapped by the previous Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government.

About 6.33 lakh works were taken up in 22,593 villages. Of them, 20,544 have become water neutral by increasing a water capacity of 27 lakh TMC, a statement issued by the government stated. “The JYA 2.0 will see the implementation of these works in the villages, which are eligible for the scheme. The villages will have to prepare a water neutrality report and maintenance audit,” the statement read.

“It is the convergence of various schemes by the government departments. We expect around 5,000 more villages to be included in the second phase of the JSA. Besides, additional works will be undertaken in the villages where the first phase was implemented,” Eknath Dawale, principal secretary, agriculture and soil-water conservation department, said.

Earlier, the scheme ran into controversy after the Comptroller and Audit General (CAG) in its report tabled in the state legislature in September 2020 had pointed out irregularities in some of the works.

Following this, the MVA government had appointed a special investigation team to probe the alleged irregularities in the scheme in October 2020. The four-member team appointed under Bijay Kumar, a retired bureaucrat, found loopholes in 1,327 works of the 1,799 that had come for scrutiny before them. The team had recommended an open inquiry by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB). District collectorates in respective districts were asked to conduct the inquiry into the irregularities.

“Nothing significant surfaced in the inquiry at district-level. Only one FIR was filed at Parner in Ahmednagar district for irregularities. In other few works, administrative lapses like delay in uploading images and absence of pre-approval were found,” an official from chief minister’s office (CMO) said.