"I had said many times that there was no substance in the allegations (of irregularities in chikki purchase). On several occasions in the Legislative Assembly also, I have replied to the charges," Pankaja said.
"Those who made the allegations saw a lot of irregularities in 'chikki' that wasn't even distributed (among schoolchildren)," the Women and Child Welfare Minister said.
"A supari (contract) was taken to defame me," Pankaja said. The BJP Minister, however, did not disclose who was behind the move to malign her.
The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has closed the case against the Minister in the matter pertaining to alleged irregularities in awarding contracts for materials worth Rs 206 crore for school children.
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Pankaja was accused of flouting norms in awarding contracts for supplying items like 'chikki' (sweetmeat made with nuts and jaggery), mats, notebooks and water filters, among others, for schoolchildren.
(Reopens BOM 21)
"There were no price escalations. Even the Supreme Court had found nothing wrong in the tenders for procurements by the Women and Child Welfare department," the minister said.
However, Sawant alleged the "ACB is working under the pressure of state government...If it cannot function independently, it's better to lock it down."
Sawant said the agency took the version of only those people against whom allegations have been made, and given the clean chit.
He said the Women and Child Welfare department had issued 24 government resolutions (GRs) for procurements worth Rs 206 crore which were "illegal".
"However, instead of investigating whether the institutions from where procurements are being made exist or not, the ACB under pressure of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis gave Pankaja a clean chit," the Congress leader said.
"We have demanded the probe report and would continue to pursue the matter. It's unfortunate that one department is involved in corruption and another department wraps up the corruption case under pressure of the CM," he said.
Meanwhile, NCP spokesman Nawab Malik said his party would fight the "chikki scam case" against Pankaja in court and alleged ACB was functioning under Fadnavis' pressure.
(Reopens BOM 24)
Activist and former AAP leader Anjali Damania said time has come to "lock down" the ACB for seven years.
"This ACB has been proved to be a puppet and toothless time and again and now time has come when it should be locked down with seven-lever period.
Damania had earlier filed corruption cases against NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal and has also been following the Pankaja Munde case.
"In case of water filters, where the rates were fixed, they were increased arbitrarily by the minister. In this case, the contract for 'chikki' (was awarded) to a Sindhudurg-based NGO against the recommendation that it should not be given to the said NGO. (Not only that) more than double the amount (Rs 80 cr against Rs 37 cr) was paid to the same contractor for the same contract," she alleged.
"Besides supplying substandard 'chikki', medicine allocation was cut down for malnourished children to save costs even as higher costs (were incurred) for items like water filter, which amounts to a criminal offence. However, the anti-corruption watchdog overlooked these documentary evidences," she said.
Maharashtra unit president of Samajwadi Party, Abu Asim Azmi said the "clean chit" was bound to be given as nothing else could be expected from the government.
"We sensed something was wrong when Chief Minister himself had given Pankaja Munde a clean chit without going into the merits of the allegations which were based on facts, figures and documents.