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| Published in The Hitavada on March 20, 2013 |
After scam, State shies away from quoting irrigation figures in Economic Survey
* Instead of revealing figures, survey mentions that SIT has been appointed ‘to assess irrigation potential and irrigated area’, raising doubts whether the SIT probe will nail the culprits of massive irrigation scam
By Kartik Lokhande
MUMBAI, March 19: Concealing nature of the Democratic Front (DF) Government on the issue of multi-crore irrigation scam came to fore once again on Tuesday, when the Economic Survey for the year 2012-13 was tabled in the House.
The report does not carry the figure of ‘gross irrigated area to gross cropped area’ for the year 2011-12. On the contrary, it also mentions ‘Not Available’ in the column for the year 2010-11. In the previous Economic Survey, percentage rise in ‘gross irrigated area to gross cropped area’ was shown as 0.1 per cent in past 10 years. This had created a political storm with the Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan questioning only 0.1 per cent rise despite spending huge amount of Rs 70,000 crore in past 10 years. It brought Water Resources Department (WRD) functioning and finances under scanner.
‘The Hitavada' followed up the matter and exposed how contractor-bureaucrat-politician nexus had siphoned off funds meant for irrigation development in rainfed region of Vidarbha. The massive irrigation scam stirred up the political atmosphere putting the DF Government in a fix. It snowballed into a major controversy across the country and NCP bigwig and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar had to tender resignation. Meanwhile, WRD brought out its ‘White Paper on Irrigation’ and claimed that area under irrigation had increased by 5.17 per cent and not 0.1 per cent only. NCP brought its ‘Satyamev Jayate’ document claiming that everything was clean and transparent in irrigation development in the State. BJP tried to counter the claims and pressed for SIT probe.
However, as was proved later, Congress did not want to pursue the matter further. Political shrills stopped soon after the DF Government appointing a Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by water expert Dr Madhavrao Chitaley. The SIT also was given terms of reference that did not facilitate nailing the culprits of irrigation scam. When ‘The Hitavada’ pointed this out, the Government stated that guilty would not be spared.
Against this backdrop, the latest Economic Survey strengthens the opinion about DF Government’s intentions. The figures included in the previous Economic Survey were based on Agriculture Department’s data. This year also, Agriculture Department had submitted its figures to Planning Department for inclusion in Economic Survey. But, the Planning Department has not included that data. It has shied away from including figures for the years 2010-11 and 2011-12.
As anticipated, the survey includes a foot-note below the chart titled ‘Maharashtra at a Glance’. The foot-note reads, “Special Inquiry Team is appointed in December 2012 for assessing irrigation potential and irrigated area. This data will be available once the report and the recommendations of the committee are accepted.” It is pretty clear from this foot-note also that the Government never wanted to assign SIT with the task of ‘investigation’. Instead, it had planned to assign it with the task of ‘inquiry’ only. This has proved the critics of the Government correct.
In the chapter on ‘Agriculture and Allied Activities’ also, the Government has mentioned that the ‘time series data on area under irrigation in the State is given in Annexure 7.5’. The said annexure says ‘Not Available’ under all the heads in the row for the year 2010-11 except for ‘gross cropped area’, which is 23,175,000 hectares. Thus, the survey smartly includes Agriculture Department’s undisputed figure but does not include other data pertaining to irrigation. Rest other data in the Economic Survey is just a repeat of that included in previous year’s report – number of irrigation projects, gap between irrigation potential created and actual irrigated area, etc quoting WRD.
Politically speaking, Congress-led portfolios – Agriculture and Revenue – have not been successful in prevailing over NCP-led ones of Water Resources and Finance and Planning as far as Economic Survey is concerned. Obviously, this also raises doubts that SIT probe’s outcome also will be on ‘politically correct’ lines instead of bringing out the plain truth. In that case, the question will remain always unanswered – If nobody was wrong, how farmers are deprived of irrigation facilities despite spending thousands of crores of rupees collected through taxes from people of Maharashtra?
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