Maharashtra government on Tuesday announced a committee to finalise the list of works to be probed after their completion under the previous Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government’s flagship Jalyukta Shivar scheme.
Former Chief Minister and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis had launched the scheme — a water conservation campaign aimed at making the State drought free — which involved collective efforts of government, farmers, NGOs and corporates. The scheme was launched on December 5, 2014 and ended after extension on March 2020. As per government data, over six lakh works were completed under the scheme.
However, a CAG report had raised serious objections over the implementation of the scheme. This was discussed by the present Maha Vikas Agahdi (MVA) government at a cabinet meeting on October 14 this year, and it was decided to conduct an open inquiry into the Jalyukta Shivar scheme.
“The number of works completed under the scheme are large. Therefore, it is important to decide which works should be selected for the inquiry. A committee has been appointed to select those works,” said an official from water conservation department.
The committee will be headed by Vijay Kumar, former additional chief secretary, and will include the Additional Director General of Police (Anti Corruption Bureau), and two officials from the water conservation department.
The committee will recommend which works, discussed in the CAG report, need to be probed and in which cases department inquiries are enough. The water conservation department has received over 600 complaint letters. “The committee will decide which of these complaints need to be looked into,” said the official. The committee will finish the work in the next six months.
The BJP however, reacted strongly to the government’s decision to probe the scheme. “The announcement of inquiry is an insult of people’s movement started by our government. The probe will yield nothing,” said BJP spokesperson Keshav Upadhye.