Mumbai: After her alleged involvement in the Rs 206 crore ‘chikki’ scam, Maharashtra’s Water Conservation Minister Pankaja Munde has landed in a fresh controversy for showing undue favours to a disqualified firm.
Pankaja, who had criticised the previous Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) regime over alleged irregularities in water conservation initiatives, has reportedly violated bidding norms and approved a contract of Rs 1.63 crore to the controversial firm.
Tenders for 12 cement check dams were floated by Devendra Fadnavis government to tackle water scarcity in the drought-hit state.
In January 2015, Maharashtra Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had allocated Rs 1,000 crore for the integrated water conservation and management initiative (Jalyukta Shivaar Abhiyaan), which aims at getting rid of drought from 5,000 villages in 2016. He had instructed the officials to release Rs 600 crore by June.
Munde had announced that the BJP-Shiv Sena government would start its Jalyukta Shivaar Abhiyaan in 2500 village at one go to make Maharashtra drought proof in five years.
