MVA government begins probe into BJP's Jalyukt Shivar Abhiyan

BJP says the scheme was farmer friendly and several benefited from it. Representation pic

The state government has officially begun a probe into alleged irregularities related to the erstwhile BJP-Sena government's water conservation scheme - Jalyukt Shivar Abhiyan. On Tuesday, the Soil and Water Conservation Department appointed an expert committee to select the cases from among several of alleged incidents for an open investigation.

Committee to pick cases
The decision to probe the scheme was taken on October 14. Retired additional chief secretary Vijay Kumar will head the four-member panel. Sitting additional director general of Anti-Corruption Bureau, Water Resources Department chief engineer Sanjay Belsare and Soil Conservation and Watershed Management, director, Pune, are other members.

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The cases under consideration are from the Comptroller and Auditor General's (CAG) recent reports, and the 600 complaints received independently since 2015 by the government machinery. The panel will recommend cases fit for open inquiry, administrative action and internal inquiry, to the respective authorities in six months. The departments have been asked to start inquiries immediately after the recommendations are made by the experts who will submit a monthly report to the government.

Truth will prevail: BJP
Chief spokesperson, state BJP, Keshav Upadhye said the scheme was a farmer-government initiative that became a great success in water management programme - a flagship scheme of then CM Devendra Fadnavis. "The government has insulted this initiative by directing a probe into it. It may inquire whatever it wants, but we are sure the truth will prevail."

"It will be another case like the Aarey Metro carshed that was ratified by the expert panel appointed by the MVA government. This committee will also establish the truth. The BJP has already explained that the CAG report is based on wrong assumptions and it does not make any corruption allegations. The CAG has inspected only 1,128 of 6,41,560 works carried across the state. They visited 120 villages that is a mere 0.53 per cent of the state's total villages." Upadhey said the CAG has said that the farmers benefited by taking two crops and that the number of tankers for water supply were reduced significantly. "While the CAG suggested some corrections, the MVA government chose to close the farmer-friendly programme. Moreover, no work was approved at the Mantralaya level," he added.

6
No. of months in which the panel has to recommend cases for probe

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