Water resources minister Hasan Mushrif told TOI on Thursday that he will not approve the new contracts. "I am not going to do anything illegal," he said, adding that the proposal was anyway not put up before him for approval. "If it comes, I will send it back." Last week the executive director of Vidarbha Irrigation Development Corporation (VIDC) R B Shukla said the file had been sent to the minister for his signature.
The expose, front-paged on August 23, revealed that the VIDC had prepared a tender list for canal work for the Gosikhurd national irrigation project near Nagpur without the mandatory land acquisition or environmental clearances. These permissions had been made compulsory for the awarding of a tender based on the recommendations of the Chitale Committee, set up to probe the 2009 irrigation scam.
With the latest re-think, TOI reports over the past 1.5 months have succeeded in forcing the state government to halt doling out irrigation contracts collectively worth Rs 1,800 crore before the election code of conduct comes into play.
In its July 18 edition, this newspaper had exposed the water conservation department hurriedly floating tenders for minor irrigation projects worth Rs 800 crore on just two days in June. These works were for the Thane irrigation circle only. The tenders were to be awarded to private contractors by July end. But following the expose, chief minister Prithviraj Chavan cancelled the tenders.
In the 2009 irrigation scam (first exposed by this newspaper in 2012), which led to deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar stepping down briefly, projects worth thousands of crores were doled out to select contractors by flouting norms. Whistle-blower Vijay Pandhare had claimed that half of the Rs 70,000 crore spent on irrigation projects in the past decade was either siphoned off or wasted on dud projects. Insiders alleged that for every contract around 7% of its cost is demanded as kickback from contractors.
Last week the Supreme Court upheld the Bombay high court's decision to admit a public interest litigation seeking a probe into the irrigation scam. The PIL, filed by Nagpur-based NGO Jan Manch in 2012, pertained to irregularities and corruption in irrigation projects executed by the VIDC in Vidarbha.
With the election code of conduct expected to be announced any day, sources said there is a flurry of activity in various state departments, such as urban development and revenue, to push through long-pending proposals, raising eyebrows at the unusual hurry.
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