Congress & BJP lock horn over Jalyukta Shivar Yojana

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Mumbai: The Congress, an alliance partner in the Maha Vikas Aaghadi (MVA) Government in Maharashtra on Wednesday launched an attack against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for one of its ambitious project the ‘Jalyukta Shivar Abhiyan’ which was launched when Devendra Fadnavis was at the helm of affairs in the state in 2014.

The Congress seems to be emboldened in its attack more so after the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) slammed the implementation of the multi-crore programme, which was a personal favourite of Fadnavis and was aimed at making the state drought-free by the year 2019.

The CAG in its report tabled in the state legislature on Tuesday stated that “despite spending Rs. 9633.75 crore, the Abhiyan (mission) had little impact in achieving water neutrality and increasing groundwater level”.

The report added that there was “lack of transparency” in the execution of works and inadequate monitoring by the state water conservation department.

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Vouching on the issue, Congress spokesperson, Sachin Sawant in a veiled attack against the former chief minister said, “The CAG report has indicted the corrupt government which was led by Fadnavis”.

Sawant further said that the judicial probe should be launched in this scam and the BJP should be made to compensate for incurring expenditure on the ‘Mi Labharthi’ (I am the beneficiary) advertisement.

Under the mission, the water has to be blocked on the boundary, to increase the groundwater & irrigation area. Besides, to make effective use of water. “Since 2015 the mission it got mired in corruption and became a melting pot for contractors,” Sawant, who is also the general secretary of Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee said.

“According to a 2018 report of the Ground Water Survey and Development System 31,015 villages saw the depletion of groundwater in the state. Apart from this in 13,984 villages of 252 talukas, the groundwater level had depleted below one meter. The Congress had raised the issue and had tried to awaken the government then,” Sawant said.

Then too, the Prime Minister made a false statement saying that 16,000 villages have become drought-free and 9,000 more villages will become drought-free to hide the failure of the state government that time,” Sawant alleged.

But in a span of only eight days the Fadnavis government included the drought-free villages into drought-hit villages, he added. One of the drought-hit taluka was that of the Water Resource Minister Ram Shinde. “Despite spending crore of rupees, the water tankers in the state saw a steep rise. In 2019, more than 9,000 tankers were operational,” the Congress leader said.

In order to give a lease of life to the BJP supporters and contractors, the Fadnavis government continued to praise the programme, he said. “We reiterate that a judicial probe should be initiated in the Jalyukta Shivar Abhiyan and soon we would meet the chief minister in this regard,” Sawant said.

BJP retorts to Congress allegations

BJP leader Adv. Ashish Shelar however, said that question cannot be raised on the success of this project. “It is wrong to raise queries on the programme as it has been a lifeline for farmers’ in the state. The evaluation was done only after inspecting 0.17 percent work,” he said.

About 6,41,560 works of Jalyukta Shivar Abhiyan have been done. And, the works which have been inspected by CAG is 1,128. Hence, how the credibility of the evaluation of Jalyukta Shivar which was done by overseeing only 0.17 percent can be achieved,” he asked.

According to Shelar, the remaining 99.83 percent works were not checked! “CAG oversaw the work happened at 120 villages, which means 0.53 percent villages were visited,” he said.

He said the CAG report says that on taluka level the water plan had to be prepared. However, the fundamental aim of the programme was not. There is no single allegation of corruption in the report. Instead, it says that the farmer was not able to grow one crop now he is able to grow two crops. Hence, the area where the sowing is done has increased and even the area has increased.

He further said that the report also mentions that out of the 83 villages only 17 villages needed supply of water tankers. This percentage is 20 per cent, which also means that in 80 percent of villages, tankers were not needed at all, he said.

Shelar said many of the recommendations lay emphasis on more improvement and there are fewer criticisms. “This also means that the CAG wants the mission to continue. Instead of putting a stay on developmental works, the Thackeray government should implement the recommendations,” Shelar added.