​BJP leaders submit ‘proof’ of irregularities

AURANGABAD: Senior state BJP leaders on Monday submitted 14,000 pages of “evidence”, including government records, letters signed by ministers and minutes of meetings, to the Madhav Chitale committee which is probing the multi-crore irrigation scam.
The BJP leaders claimed their documents would prove how the cost of numerous irrigation projects in the state was escalated, certain contractors favoured and a large amount of money siphoned off.
Vinod Tawde, leader of the opposition in the state legislative council, and state BJP president Devendra Fadnavis, armed with a suitcase of documents each, met Madhav Chitale, who heads the special investigation team probing irregularities in many major projects in the five irrigation development corporations in the state since 1999.
Tawde and Fadnavis also submitted a 47-page covering letter, divided into 10 chapters that listed allegations ranging from addition of new projects to the already approved ones in the name of extension of work, to how ministers approved funds for irrigation projects to the tune of Rs 34,000 crore in violation of election norms.
Tawde claimed that the documents they had submitted were signed by deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar and water resources minister Sunil Tatkare. He said the documents show that Pawar and Tatkare twisted guidelines to offer advance payments to the contractors so that they (Pawar and Tatkare) could receive the commission amount. “The documents are self-explanatory,” he claimed.
Chitale said the committee would take cognizance of the documents within the frame of terms of reference set by the government, which include reasons for lesser irrigated area, cost escalation in projects and the delay in execution and implementation of several irrigation projects in the state.