Irrigation scam: HC tells petitioner to file affidavit

Hearing two PILs seeking a CBI probe against ministers and bureaucrats allegedly involved in multi- crore irrigation scam, Bombay High Court today asked one of the petitioners to file an affidavit in two weeks.
One PIL has been filed by activist Praveen Wategaonkar and the other by former journalist Ketan Tirodkar.
Tirodkar today informed a division bench that he had come across a CBI website which assured action if the agency gets information about corrupt practices. He said CBI was aware about corrupt practices in Irrigation scam through PILs pending before the Court and it should have taken action.
However, Wategaonkar contended that he did not agree with Tirodkar in as much as the CBI should be directed by the Court to take action because on its own the agency had not proceeded against the accused.

After perusing Tirodkar's application, the Judge asked for a print-out copy of CBI website but the petitioner said he had not filed it and had personally gone through the same.
A bench headed by Justice S C Dharmadhikari then asked Tirodkar to file an affidavit on the issue within two weeks and deferred the hearing on PILs until then.

Recently, Wategaonkar had filed a re-joinder affidavit questioning the validity of the Special Investigation Team formed by the Chief Minister to look into the irrigation scam. He also demanded to know if the SIT has any punitive powers.
He informed court that the SIT consisted of persons who are knowledgeable about the water related issues. However, he said that they do not have in depth knowledge about the punitive action that can be taken against the accused.

Wategaonkar's petition seeks an inquiry into alleged cases in which "idle charges" were paid to contractors while withholding dues and demands of the project-affected and payments towards forest land/forest clearances, etc, in Jamda and other Konkan Irrigation Development Corporation (KIDC) projects till 2011-12 and the public servants who approved these payments.