advertisement
Devendra Fadnavis, leader of the Opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, is on the radar of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government over allegations of corruption relating to the water conservation scheme 'Jalyukt Shivar Abhiyan', which had been initiated during the BJP leader's tenure as Maharashtra CM.
The BJP leader has accepted the challenge of the MVA government, welcoming the inquiry.
The Jalyukt Shivar Abhiyan, launched in 2014, had been the flagship project of the BJP-led government in Maharashtra under the leadership of Fadnavis.
Maharashtra's Maha Vikas Aghadi government has been accused of corruption on a number of occasions in the past. Several ministers and leaders of the government are on the radar of central agencies. The MVA, on its part, has spoken against the misuse of the central investigative agencies.
The MVA government has now recommended an open inquiry against Fadnavis to be conducted by the ACB.
Senior journalist Sanjay Jog says that amid talk of the fall of the MVA government, the ordering of the probe against Fadnavis signals that the three parties part of the coalition are ready to put up a fight against the BJP.
The Jalyukt Shivar scheme is being investigated from two ends. The government had earlier ordered a departmental inquiry into the matter, which will entail an investigation into the discrepancies within the work conducted under the scheme, and violations, if any, of tendering and administrative guidelines. Under this investigation, the brunt of the probe will be borne by the officers.
The inquiry conducted by the ACB will entail a probe into the financial irregularities detected in connection to the scheme. In the open inquiry, any person related to the scheme can be called upon for questioning.
The MVA government which succeeded the Fadnavis-led government in Maharashtra treated the complaints levelled against the Jalyukt Shivar scheme with great seriousness.
In the Cabinet meeting of October 2019 which was chaired by CM Uddhav Thackeray, the demand for an open inquiry into the alleged discrepancies in Shivar Yojana arose for the first time. Thereafter, a committee was constituted under the chairmanship of retired officer Vijay Kumar.
Earlier, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) had also objected to the work conducted under the Jalyukt Shivar Yojana. According to the CAG, while 9 thousand crore rupees were spent on the scheme, the groundwater level did not rise as had been proposed under the policy.
The scheme also faced the allegations of a lack of transparency in its conduction. Purportedly, the scheme was not implemented on the ground level in some villages, contrary to what the records had reflected.
Fadnavis speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, indicated that he is welcomes the investigation.
In 2014, former Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had announced the Jalyukt Shivar Yojana.
The water conservation scheme had sought to make Maharashtra a drought-free state by 2019. The programme aimed to ameliorate the water scarcity in 5,000 villages in the state each year.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)