{
 "no": 81,
 "id": "case-81",
 "sk": 20121001,
 "year": 2012,
 "date": "Surfaced 2012; clean chit 2019",
 "cat": "Public money",
 "sev": "amber",
 "title": "Maharashtra irrigation. ₹70,000 crore spent, and almost no new irrigation",
 "stamp": "Clean chit. The water never arrived.",
 "human": {
  "v": "Farmers in a drought-prone state promised irrigation that a decade of spending did not deliver",
  "est": false
 },
 "cost": {
  "v": "About <b>₹70,000 crore</b> spent over a decade for a reported rise in irrigation potential of roughly <b>0.1%</b>",
  "est": true
 },
 "what": "The state's own 2012 Economic Survey recorded that Maharashtra had spent close to ₹70,000 crore on irrigation over a decade while irrigation potential rose by a fraction of a percent. Project costs had been revised upward repeatedly and approvals cleared in bulk.",
 "dodge": "The Deputy Chief Minister who chaired the relevant irrigation corporation resigned briefly and returned. A white paper was produced. The Anti-Corruption Bureau later gave him a clean chit in the cases examined. The gap between money spent and water delivered has never been explained by anyone.",
 "ministers": [
  {
   "n": "Ajit Pawar",
   "r": "Water Resources Minister and Vidarbha irrigation corporation chairman (NCP); later cleared by the ACB"
  },
  {
   "n": "Maharashtra Water Resources Department",
   "r": "Approvals and cost revisions"
  }
 ],
 "pos": "Pawar denied wrongdoing throughout, said cost revisions reflected inflation and design changes, and points to the Anti-Corruption Bureau's clean chit.",
 "alleg": "Corruption is <em>alleged and has not been established; the investigating agency itself cleared the principal figure</em>. The spending figure and the irrigation figure are the state's own.",
 "alt": "Irrigation potential audited against expenditure every year and published, so a decade cannot pass before anyone notices.",
 "estimates": {
  "costInrCrore": 70000
 },
 "sources": [
  {
   "label": "ThePrint: what the Maharashtra irrigation scam was",
   "url": "https://theprint.in/theprint-essential/maharashtra-irrigation-scam-clean-chit-ajit-pawar/2838627/",
   "tier": 2
  },
  {
   "label": "Tribune: Ajit Pawar gets ACB clean chit",
   "url": "https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/archive/nation/ajit-pawar-gets-acb-clean-chit-in-vidarbha-irrigation-scam-870997",
   "tier": 2
  }
 ],
 "caseUrl": "https://whoisresponsible.xyz/case/case-81/"
}