After denying allegations of corruption in his department as baseless, UP Jal Shakti Minister Mahendra Singh claimed on Monday that the previous Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party regimes indulged in gross irregularities in the schemes to facilitate water to every home and a probe had hence been initiated in this regard.
Earlier on Sunday, Aam Aadmi Party’s Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh had alleged that the Uttar Pradesh government indulged in a big scam in the multi-crore Jal Jeevan Mission scheme in the state and charged Jal Shakti Minister Dr Mahendra Singh of awarding the contract of constructing pipelines to a company that had been rejected by eight states. The AAP MP further alleged that the government tender had been awarded to the company at 40 per cent higher than the original quotation.
Within a few hours, the Bharatiya Janata Party government denied the allegations, claiming that no tender was awarded to anyone and that work was done on the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) model.
“In 2012, two schemes were started for surface water -- Mau and Barkat -- with a total budget of Rs 200 crore. Jal Nigam was overseeing the projects but water never reached any homes. Similarly, a Rs 1.25 lakh crore project was launched in Chitrakoot ten years back which was never completed. On Sunday, the BJP government initiated an inquiry into these water-related scams to identify the culprits and bring them to justice,” he said.
The UP minister said that the Aam Aadmi Party levelled baseless allegations against the present government but the truth was that a scheme which was sanctioned at Rs 1.25 lakh for facilitating water to each home ten years back was now launched by the Yogi Adityanath government at just Rs 50,000 per home.
He also said that bids at different rates for different regions of the state were received but the government only awarded the contracts to the lowest bid across the state.
Singh claimed that it was Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dream to ensure water supply to each home and the Yogi Adityanath government was fulfilling that commitment with absolute honesty and transparency.
Citing zero tolerance policy towards crime and corruption of the Yogi government, the minister said that if any irregularity came to his knowledge anywhere then stringent legal action would be initiated.