Ministers fear spending all funds: Ajit Pawar

Advocating the practice of revised administrative approval to irrigation proposals, for which he had come under a cloud, former deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar said that BJP government could not spend all the funds allocated to the water resources department as the ministers had feared that they would get into trouble.

Speaking with selected mediapersons, Mr Pawar targeted the BJP government for delays in decision-making over the release of dam water and in granting permissions for pending dam projects.

Mr Pawar said the state government should understand the need to take decisions at the appropriate time to offer relief to the common people.

“Sometimes it’s possible that a decision can be wrong, but if it is largely in favour of the society, it should be taken. Unfortunately, Girish Mahajan (minister for water resources) has no guts to take decisions in his power,” claimed Mr Pawar.

He added that Mr Mahajan was a polite and simple man and was frustrated with this department. “He does not want to remain the water resources minister as he fears he could be charged for corruption. That is the reason he didn’t take decisions to sanction revised administrative approval (RAA) for various pending projects. Mahajan and the government is worried that they will also attract allegations of corruptions, like I did, if they issue the RAA at this stage,” said Mr Pawar.

He further said the water resources department could not exhaust its complete budgetary allocation and his party would corner government over this issue. “I am sure Mr Mahajan could not use allocated fund fully,” he said.

According to Mr Pawar, one should not consider revised administrative approval as way of corruption. “Several times there are other reasons for escalation in cost, including change in the original project design, extension of the canal length, increase in compensation amount against land acquisition due to orders from the high court etc.” he said.

Sharing his experience, Mr Pawar said during his tenure, a case was put forth for his approval as he was finance minister. A small dam was constructed at the cost of '9 crore and project affected people came with the order of the high court which directed the state government to compensate '42 crore to PAPs. “I was shocked, but signed the file with a remark that the decision was taken in accordance with the HC order,” he said. “Mr Mahajan should take decisions without fear, so that the work of several dams that has been stuck due to lack of RAA can be restarted and ultimately people of the state will benefit from the dams,” he added.

Mr Mahajan remained unavailable for comment despite several attempts.