28 October,2021 07:56 AM IST | Mumbai | Dharmendra Jore
The department has said that the scheme helped increase farm production by 11 to 87 per cent in the six districts
The Soil and Water Conservation Department has found nothing wrong in the erstwhile government's Jalyukta Shivar Yojana. The findings pertain to the observations made by the Comptroller and Accountant General (CAG). The department secretary has submitted a report to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Maharashtra Legislature.
While Bharatiya Janata Party leaders said the MVA government had fallen flat on its face after giving the welfare scheme a bad name, the government denied giving a clean chit to the former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis's flagship programme.
An official note on Wednesday said that administrative and financial irregularities in 71 per cent works, found by a special investigating team (SIT), were still being probed at the district level. "There is no question of a clean chit since the reports are still awaited. The information in circulation is based on what the implementing department's secretary has given to the legislative committee on October 26," the release said.
The scheme courted controversy after the CAG found faults in some work in Nagpur, Buldhana, Palghar, Ahmednagar, Solapur and Beed. CAG reports are referred to the PAC, a joint committee of both houses, for reviewing. The PAC conducts hearings, seeks clarifications and probes the departments for irregularities.
For its submission before PAC, the department has evaluated over 50 per cent work in the six districts to infer that the scheme has benefited farmers, who also contributed their share to the programme.
It says the scheme has increased water level that did not recede despite excessive pumping; an assured irrigation brought more land under cultivation for the kharif and rabi seasons and increased farm production by 11 to 87 per cent, thereby improving the income of the dependent farmers in the six districts.
The report says that the scheme works were planned technically and geomapped. The site photos were geotagged and uploaded in public domain. The deficiencies that were found by independent evaluating agencies were corrected in the subsequent years. It said the villages where the scheme was implemented created water holding capacity despite low average rainfall and needed tanker supply for drinking water much later in the summer.
Fadnavis said he was very happy because it was a scheme by the people and for the people. "Six lakh works have been done. Even a high court-appointed panel of experts from across the country had opined that the scheme benefited farmers. The high court has accepted the experts' report. And, I think the department's report is in tune with the experts. The scheme should not be given a bad name. The government itself has highlighted the benefits of Jalyukta Shivar Yojana," he said.
BJP legislator Ashish Shelar said, "The MVA government that had tried to tarnish the Jalyukta Shivar Yojana has fallen flat on its face. Now if the Water Conservation Department is stating these facts at the end of their inquiry, then it is clear that only out of sheer ego and political hatred the scheme was getting tarnished. The farmers of Maharashtra have been insulted."
