Orissa High Court

Cuttack, Aug. 10: A PIL was filed today in Orissa High Court seeking a judicial probe into an alleged scam involving “wasteful expenditure” of Rs 836 crore by the Orissa water resources department.

Bombay-based lawyer Srikant Padhi filed the PIL citing a comptroller and auditor general (CAG) audit report “for the period October 2010”.

Padhi alleged that the CAG report pointed out “mismanagement of funds involving excess payment to contractors and fraudulent payment amounting to Rs 836 crore as well as overrun extra expenditure worth Rs 3,537.26 crore on irrigation projects”.

Expressing concern, the PIL stated that even though the irrigation department had been pumping thousands of crores of rupees to extend irrigation facilities, there has been an inordinate delay in implementing the projects.

“The people of Orissa are dependent on agriculture for their livelihood and the delay in completing the projects and spending huge amounts without proper planning has caused great prejudice to the people of Orissa,” the PIL contended. Under the Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme (AIBP) only nine of the 33 irrigation projects were completed. Some of the projects were completed in 12 years. The rest — 24 projects — remained incomplete because of “lack of political will”.

According to the petition, a letter seeking judicial probe into the “wasteful expenditure” of Rs 836 crore and extra expenditure of Rs 3,537.26 crore on the irrigation projects was first submitted to the Orissa chief minister on December 18, 2010. A second letter was submitted to the chief minister and it was acknowledged through a letter on May 6, 2011. A similar letter was submitted to the governor of Orissa on April 13, 2011.

The petition had also sought direction for a judicial probe through a letter to the chief justice of high court on May 2, 2011. The letter was forwarded to the chief minister.