Maharashtra's white paper on irrigation projects fails to answer key questions

Maharashtra government’s much-hyped white paper on the irrigation scam in the state was met with loud protests from people and citizens’ groups. They accused the state of evading basic issues raised by them. The paper makes no attempts whatsoever to explore the irregularities pointed out in the Wadnere and Mendhegiri Committee reports and the numerous public interest petitions filed in courts across the state.

Instead, the report spread over 800-odd pages presents old secondary data, citing oft-repeated excuses for delays and cost escalations that have already been rejected by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG). Key points of investigation like accuracy of water-availability reports and violations of Maharashtra Public Manual (MPM), have not been addressed at all. Also, no cost-benefit analysis, for which demands were raised vehemently, has been done.

“The first feature of a white paper, even if you go by the Wikipedia definition,” says Vishwambhar Chaudhary, Pune-based EIA expert and environment activist, “is that it is a democratic process, involving public consultations. But in this case, no consultation has been done, and no irregularity has been directly addressed. The paper reads more like a routine status report.” Chaudhary is currently studying the scam in the Marathwada region, and hopes to publish a detailed study in a few months.

“We had expected that at least a few sample projects will be taken up and studied for irregularities and cost-benefit analysis would be done,” says Indavi Tulpule of non-profit Shramik Mukti Sanghatana, who has filed a public interest petition on cost escalation and MPM violations in the Kalu dam in Konkan.

Why dams failed

The highly technical question of water availability and fake water discharge estimates used to increase the size of dams and raise dewatering costs has been sidelined completely by the paper. “All over Maharashtra, dams have failed due to hyped water availability estimates, which fact has been brought to the notice of government repeatedly,” says Chaudhary, “But the report is completely silent on the issue. All that you find is old official data that can be found in any irrigation document.”