Mumbai:
The Madhav Chitale Committee Report on a massive irrigation scam in Maharashtra, allegedly worth Rs 70,000 crore, will be tabled in the state's legislative assembly today.
The committee, headed by Madhav Chitale, was appointed to probe the scam and submitted its 1,361-page report to Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan in March this year.
The panel, which held 30 meeting in four months while probing the scam, visited irrigation projects, many of which were under the scanner for huge cost escalations and took the views of non-governmental organisations or NGOs, activists and the irrigation department as well. Mr Chitale, however, has not commented on the contents of his report.
"The report will be tabled tomorrow in the house with ATR (Action Taken Report). You and the people of Maharashtra will know tomorrow what the facts are," state Irrigation Minister Sunil Tatkare said on Friday.
"We will discuss the report after it is tabled in the house," said Mr Chavan, refusing to comment on the contents of the report. He also refuted the Opposition's charge that the government was running away from a debate by tabling the report on the last day of the assembly session. Instead, the entire country could discuss and debate the report after it is tabled, he said.
State BJP President Devendra Fadnavis had alleged that the government was not confortable debating the contents of the report as it was likely to cause embarrassment.
The Opposition has blamed Deputy Chief Minister and NCP leader Ajit Pawar and his party colleague, Mr Tatkare for the scam. Mr Pawar, the nephew of Nationalist Congress Party chief and former Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, was forced to quit as deputy chief minister in September 2012 over allegations of irregularities as the state's irrigation minister between 1999 and 2009. The Opposition had demanded that Mr Pawar should face the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the scam.
However, he returned as Deputy Chief Minister, riding on a White Paper that gave him a clean chit in the irrigation scam. The white paper was presented in November 2012 by Irrigation Minister Tatkare. It claimed a 28 per cent increase in the state's irrigation potential in the last 10 years - Mr Pawar had held the portfolio for most of the period.
The White Paper was dismissed by the opposition as an eyewash.