As Ajit Pawar claims R R Patil backstabbed him, Prithviraj Chavan says he never ordered an open inquiry by ACB in irrigation scam
The Maharashtra ACB gave a clean chit to Ajit Pawar in the multi-crore Vidarbha irrigation scam after the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government of the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress was sworn in the state on November 28, 2019.
Pawar claimed that there were attempts to defame him by levelling allegations that he was involved in Rs 70,000 crore irrigation scam. (File Photo)
EVEN as Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Tuesday claimed that his former party colleague and then Maharashtra Home Minister ”backstabbed” him by ordering an ”open inquiry” against him in the alleged Rs 70,000 crore irrigation scam, former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan denied that he had given the green signal to the probe by the Anti-Corruption Bureau.
”The file signed by then Home Minister R R Patil never reached me… I never signed the file and did not give a green signal to the open inquiry by the Anti-Corruption Bureau,” Chavan told this paper minutes after Ajit Pawar made the revelation. Chavan was Maharashtra’s chief minister from 2010 to 2014. He headed the Congress-NCP government. The government fell in September 2014 after the NCP withdrew support to it.
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At an election rally in Sangli’s Tasgaon Assembly seat — where NCP candidate Sanjaykaka Patil is pitted against R R Patil’s son, Rohit, Ajit Pawar said in 2014 when Devendra Fadnavis became the chief minister, he had shown him the file containing R R Patil’s remarks for an open inquiry by the ACB. ”I was very upset…This is because R R Patil was a close colleague who resorted to backstabbing,” he said.
Pawar claimed that there were attempts to defame him by levelling allegations that he was involved in Rs 70,000 crore irrigation scam. ”The annual expenditure of the project was Rs 42,000 crore, but a case was made to show that there was a scam of Rs 70,000 crore,” said Pawar who was the Water Resources Minister in the Congress-NCP government from 2009 to 2014.
Besides, he was also chairman of Vidarbha Irrigation Development Corporation which had cleared irrigation projects.
Chavan however said he had demanded an White Paper after the annual Economic Survey was published. ”The Economic Survey prepared by Ajit Pawar’s finance department showed Rs 70,000 crore expenditure in 10 years on irrigation projects which had not been completed. Therefore, I had demanded a White Paper. The White Paper was meant to point out the mistakes that were committed. But Ajit Pawar thought I had ordered an open inquiry. The NCP withdrew support to my government in September 2014 and the government fell,” he said.
“The then governor refused to sign on the file (for open inquiry) and stated that let the new CM sign it,” Pawar claimed.\
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Notably, Sharad Pawar-led NCP withdrew support to then Prithviraj Chavan-led government in September 2014 following the announcement of breaking of ties with Congress, just days ahead of the Maharashtra Assembly election 2024.
The Maharashtra ACB gave a clean chit to Ajit Pawar in the multi-crore Vidarbha irrigation scam after the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government of the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress was sworn in the state on November 28, 2019.
Late R R Patil had served as the state home minister for a considerable time during the tenure of the Congress-NCP governments from 2004 to 2014.
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