Maharashtra government announces probe into Fadnavis pet project Jalyukt Shivar Abhiyan

The Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government on Wednesday announced an open inquiry into the Devendra Fadnavis-led government’s flagship water conservation programme

The Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government on Wednesday announced an open inquiry into the Devendra Fadnavis-led government’s flagship water conservation programme Jalyukt Shivar Abhiyan (JSA), a project on which ₹9,634 crore was spent in the past five years. The move came days after the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) issued strictures on JSA in its report and the state has received complaints of corruption and faulty work in the scheme.

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While the decision to initiate an open inquiry was taken in the state cabinet, the modalities and terms of reference are yet to be finalised.

Water conservation minister Shankarrao Gadakh said the probe will also look into irregularities in other irrigation projects and cost escalations in their budget. “We have received more than 700 complaints related to corruption, irregularities in JSA and other irrigation projects. Besides the stricture in the CAG report, the probe will be into 6.37 lakh works allotted under JSA, their implementation and the budget allotted to it. It was a contractor-driven scheme and irregularities by the contractors have cropped in many districts. We will also inquire into the revised administrative approvals given to the irrigation projects in the past five years, as these approvals, too, are suspicious,” said Gadakh.

“It is yet to be decided whether it would be probe by a special investigation team (SIT) or anti-corruption bureau (ACB) or by a separate committee,” said Gadakh.

However, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar said they were ready to face the probe, but it should not be politically motivated.

Water supply and sanitation minister Gulabrao Patil said irregularities in the scheme began right from the tendering process. He said the inquriy will be conducted into the water tankers deployed after the implementation of the scheme, ground-water level and other flaws involved.

The decision to probe JSA was taken after a few cabinet ministers raised the issue during the discussion on centrally sponsored Atal Bhujal Yojana in the drought-prone 14 districts. “It was not on cabinet agenda, but came up for discussion abruptly when rural development minister pointed at the CAG strictures. We then unanimously decided to probe the irregularities,” said a minister, who did not wish to be named.

The CAG report tabled in the state legislature on September 8 slammed the Fadnavis government for its failure in implementation of JSA envisaged to make villages in Maharashtra drought-free. Besides the deficiencies in planning and lack of provision of adequate funds for maintenance of works, JSA failed to achieve water neutrality in drought-prone villages and increase the ground-water level as intended, the report stated.

The report stated that even after spending ₹9,634 crore, the Abhiyan had little impact in drought-prone districts, which ended deploying more tankers than in the past.

While in opposition, Congress, which is now one of the three allies in MVA along with Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), had alleged irregularities in the scheme. Welcoming the probe, Maharashtra Congress’s general secretary and spokesperson Sachin Sawant said, “The Fadnavis government had boasted to make 25,000 villages drought-free under JSA. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in one of his speeches, had said the scheme helped making 16,000 villages drought-free, but in the very next summer more number of tankers was deployed in the same villages. The ground-water level in these villages dipped after the implementation of the scheme. The scheme benefited the contractors and we had been bringing out the flaws in it.”