Chitale comm report: Clean chit to Pawar in irrigation scam

Maharashtra government today gave a clean chit to Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar in the irrigation scam as it tabled in the Legislative Assembly the report of Madhav Chitale committee on the issue alongwith the Action Taken Report.
Pawar, an NCP stalwart, held the Water Resources Ministry for much of the last decade. The committee was appointed following the allegations that despite spending Rs 70,000 crore in this period, nothing much showed on the ground, while cost of irrigation projects escalated dramatically.
The current Water Resources Minister Sunil Tatkare told the house that the report says that cost escalations were brought to the notice of the governing council of irrigation development corporations by the chief financial officer and executive director, and still approvals were given.

The committee has held members and the chairman (the post held by Minister of Water Resources) of corporations responsible for this.
However, Tatkare added, the approvals were given only in the case of four projects, where, as per the existing rules, the Minister and the governing council had the powers to grant them.
Tatkare also said that guilty officials would be punished after a departmental inquiry in five projects singled out by the committee for probe. The government has accepted 20 of the 22 recommendations of the three-member committee.
Tatkare, who too belongs to NCP, said the report points out that irrigation capacity had increased by over nine lakh hectares (26 per cent) -- from 36.48 lakh hectare to 45.91 lakh hectares -- in the last nine years.