Rattled with the repeated allegations of corruption in power generation, deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar challenged the Opposition and MLC leader Vinod Tawde to be more specific rather than merely crying out corruption repeatedly.
Mr Pawar said he would begin a departmental inquiry after the Monsoon Session ends and would submit a report within six months. However, Mr Tawde countered that such an inquiry is futile given that it’ll be Mr Pawar’s office and his officers conducting it, and demanded a judicial inquiry instead.
The Opposition alleged that there has been an investment of `19,672 cro-re between 2004 and 2012, but instead of increasing power generation, it has further dwindled from 42,929 megawatts in 2004-2005 to 39,048 megawatts in 2012-2013, which is indicative of wrongdoings in the department.
Replying to the continuous allegations of corruption, Mr Pawar retorted, “I will conduct a departmental inquiry into the matter. It will begin after the Assembly session is over and in six month’s time I will table the report. However, I would like the Opposition to be more specific as to what kind of corruption, and corruption in what way are they talking about. This is a challenge, but if there is no instance of corruption, then I’d like to ask what corruption they were crying hoarse about.”
Mr Pawar even went as far as to allow the Opposition to select the IAS officers from the ranks of secretary, principal secretary and additional chief secretary who they would deem fit to conduct the inquiry.
However, Mr Tawde questioned, “Is dada (Mr Pawar) ready for a judicial probe instead?” Mr Pawar then retorted that there were also some good officers in the government, creating pandemonium in the House.