Nearly a week after Deputy Chief Minister, Ajit Pawarresigned, the Shiv Sena-BJP saffron alliance mounted pressure on the DemocraticFront government “ linking his exit from the dispensation to the Mantralayafire and demanding a CBI probe.
Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray said thatPawar confidently resigned as he was aware that the files related to theirrigation department were destroyed in the June 21 fire at Mantralaya, thestate secretariat here.
“Ajit Pawar got the courage to resign from the post ofdeputy chief minister after the files related to various scams burnt down inMantralaya...Isn't his resignationrelated to Mantralaya fire?...As soon as the inquiry began on various scams,the files related to them burnt down in the fire at Mantralaya ,” Thackerayhad alleged.
On the other hand, BJP deputy leader in Lok Sabha and formerDeputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde demanded that there should be a CBI probe.
“Not a single file has been burnt....this is absolutelybaseless,” Pawar said in Dhule.
“It is better that people who do not know where whichdepartment is, refrain from comments.....you must know what is there on firstfloor, second floor, third floor, fourth floor, fifth floor and sixthfloor....as far as the Water Resources department is concerned, it is on thesecond floor and all the files here are intact,” Pawar said, without namingThackeray.
Water Resources Minister Sunil Tatkre too had rebutted theallegations. “There is no relation or fact on what he had said.....you all knowwhich floors of Mantralaya had caught fire, you all know where the WaterResources Department is located......it is a politically motivatedstatement...in politics one has to face such baseless allegations,” Tatkare hadstated.
But after the reactions of Pawar and Tatkare, the BJPmounted further pressure. They suggested a probe with a 31-point terms of reference which includedetails of total tenders called by irrigation corporations, details of initialcost and revised cost, the reasons for cost escalation, and the irrigationpotential created over the years with detailed break-up.
The details were sought by Leader of the Opposition in theMaharashtra Legislative Council Vinod Tawde.
Chief Minister, Prithviraj Chavan had assured a white paperon the issue of irrigation - and even his deputy AjitPawar of the NCP had toresign in the wake of allegations vis-a-vis irrigation projects during thelatter's tenure as Water Resources Minister.
Tawde said that details of year-wise, project wise target ofactual irrigation planned, declared and created must be included.
Similarly, details of year-wise, project-wise irrigationpotential created by accelerated irrigation benefits programme (AIBP) projectsin comparison to the commitment for the area of irrigation potential by thestate government to the Centre must be included along with comparison of actualland irrigation under AIBP projects.
