State indicates Fadnavis’s pet water scheme may be shelved

The Maharashtra government on Tuesday indicated that it may not renew the Jalyukta Shivar Yojna, a pet project of former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, after

The Maharashtra government on Tuesday indicated that it may not renew the Jalyukta Shivar Yojna, a pet project of former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, after its extended deadline ended on December 31, 2019.

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However, the government also clarified that pending work under the BJP’s flagship project has been given time up to March 31 for completion. In a written reply to the legislative council, Shankarrao Gadakh, water conservation minister, said, “2018-19 was the last year of Jalyukta Shivar. The scheme was given an extension till December 31, 2019. There is no question of scrapping the scheme.”

In his reply, Gadakh stated that 6,32,708 works were taken up in 22,586 villages under the scheme, between 2015 and 2019. The state has spent ₹9,707 crore on these works.

No new projects under the scheme would be given funds now.

“If works that have already been decided need more funds, they will be provided as and when necessary,” Gadakh later told HT, adding that work started under Jalyukta Shivar before December 31, 2019 has been given time till March 31, 2020.

“There was nothing new in Jalyukta Shivar. It is an amalgamation of 15 types of work undertaken by seven heads, under water resources department, water conservation department, agriculture department, forest department, rural water supply scheme, employment guarantee scheme and by the zilla parishad. This work is crucial for the cause of water conservation and will continue under the respective heads as it is,” Gadakh said.

After March-end, there will be a detailed review of the completed work under the campaign, he added.

An official from Gadakh’s office later said, “There were a lot of complaints of irregularities under the Jalyukta Shivar and criminal action was taken in these matters. Even though ₹9,707 crore was spent on the work, the department will inspect how much work was actually done.”

Meanwhile, Fadnavis said, “This scheme was a convergence of many schemes the government ran at the same time. Since these ran parallelly, no work was completed properly, no water shed was treated properly. So we merged 14 schemes. For better planning and coordination, all departments were kept under the district collector. That is why it worked, and was widely accepted and patronised by people.”

“Andra Pradesh, Telangana, and Chhatisgarh followed Maharashtra’s example and implemented similar schemes in their state. This government’s stand is politically motivated. They want to prove the previous government did not do any work, or was corrupt. This government’s tactic is that, since they cannot do more and better development than us, they want to erase and discredit our development work. I am certain this scheme will not shut down. The present government will probably garb it in some other name and change a few details here and there. But they won’t close the scheme. If there are any irregularities and that is brought to the government’s notice, then action should be taken. However, it doesn’t mean the entire scheme is bad,” he added.

Ram Shinde, who was minister of state for water resources in the former BJP-led state government, said, “Any good thing that the BJP government did in the past five years is being undone by the present government. Jalyukta Shivar was a good scheme. It helped many farmers, and was widely praised by experts for its success. Its good effects will be visible for many years to come. The MVA’s decision to not continue with the scheme is politically motivated as they want to give the previous government a bad name.”

During its tenure, the Fadnavis government had presented Jalyukta Shivar Yojna as one of its major achievement and an attempt to get rid of droughts in rural Maharashtra. The scheme had become a huge talking point, but also became controversial due to allegations of irregularities in its implementation at the local level.

Fadnavis had then set up an expert committee headed by former chief secretary of Maharashtra Johny Joseph to look into the alleged irregularities. The state clarified on Tuesday that this committee submitted its recommendations to the High Court in 2018, in reply to a writ petition.