Members of the ruling Congress have joined hands with NGOs and the Opposition to demand an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) or a special investigation team (SIT) into the multi-crore irrigation scam in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra.
They said the state government’s decision to institute probe by water resources department against 45 officials of Vidarbha Irrigation Development Corporation (VIDC) would not reveal the nexus between politicians, officials and contractors, which led to rampant corruption during the implementation of 38 irrigation projects in Vidarbha.
The government’s move comes in the wake of expose over the increase in cost of 38 irrigation projects in Vidarbha to Rs 26,722 crore from Rs 6,672 crore by VIDC.
Vijay Wadettiwar, a Congress legislator from Chandrapur, said: “An inquiry by the CBI or by SIT will reveal more details and will lead to further expose on unholy nexus between politicians and contractors in particular.”
Jan Manch, an NGO which filed petition in the Nagpur bench of the Bombay high court, also argued that the nexus between the politicians and contractors need to established through a proper inquiry.
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The NGO alleged that private contractors, who did the work of irrigation projects in Vidarbha, were hand in glove with corrupt officials and siphoned crores of rupees.
However, thousands of farmers, who were the intended beneficiaries, were left high and dry. In the case of Gosikhurd project, whose cost has escalated to Rs 13,600 crore from a moderate Rs 372 crore in 1988, an advance of Rs 135.28 crore were paid as mobilisation advance while a total of Rs 497.17 crore for other projects in Vidarbha.
The Vadnere Committee in its report to the state government in June 2010 had re-endorsed the stand taken by the deputy secretary in the water resources department that mobilisation of machinery advances were not permissible. Although there was no provision in the tender document to grant mobilisation advance to contractors, it was granted with the approval of water resources minister and ex-officio chairman of the VIDC between 2007 and 2009. Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar was the water resources minister during that period, but he has rejected any charges of corruption or malafide intentions.
According to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), VIDC also paid mobilisation advance to contractors. BJP legislator Devendra Phadanvis questioned how such advances were paid to contractors when there was no such provision in the tender.
BJP and Jan Manch have cited the CAG report in which the auditor commented that “undue favour to contractors without tender conditions were made”. The duo argued that had the VIDC included the condition of mobilisation advance in the tender, more bidders might have been attracted to the work.
