The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has registered an ECIR in the irrigation scam related to Vidarbha Irrigation Development Corporation (VIDC) in Nagpur, Maharashtra. The VIDC is headquartered at Nagpur and the projects under investigation are the ones at Gondia, Yavatmal and Bhandara districts.
The scam dates back to 2012 when the present Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Ajit Pawar, was the irrigation minister in a Congress-Nationalist Congress Party government.
Following a Public Interest Litigation, the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) of the Maharashtra Police was asked to register cases and investigate the alleged scam.
The scam allegedly involved irregularities to the tune of Rs 35,000 crore then. The ACB registered cases and booked contractors in some of the irrigation projects. Cases were also registered at Amravati and Nagpur in connection with the Gosekhurd projects at Gondia, Yavatmal and Bhandara.
Allegations were made against Ajit Pawar saying he was at the helm of irregularities in projects awarded by the ministry he ran.
The allegations included claims that Pawar awarded projects at inflated prices.
Last year, the ACB gave him a clean chit. In an affidavit filed in the high court in December last year, the Director General of the Maharashtra Anti-Corruption Bureau said the ACB’s inquiry found no involvement on the NCP leader’s part in the alleged scam in the 12 projects undertaken by the VIDC.
In January this year, Ajit Pawar filed an affidavit in the Nagpur Bench of Bombay High Court in reply to petitions against him in the irrigation scam, calling the allegations “mala fide”.
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