Overview
- Ajit Pawar alleged the Purandar Lift Irrigation Scheme’s estimate was raised to about Rs 330 crore in the late 1990s, including roughly Rs 100 crore for party funds and Rs 10 crore for officials.
- He said that as water resources minister in 1999 he scrapped the inflated proposal, ordered a reassessment and found the project could be completed for around Rs 220–230 crore.
- Revenue Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule and former water resources minister Eknath Khadse rejected the charge, questioned Pawar’s 25-year silence and urged him to release the documents.
- Former irrigation chief engineer Vijay Pandhare publicly supported Pawar’s claim and alleged wider irregularities across lift irrigation schemes under the Krishna Valley project.
- Reporting notes the Purandar scheme was approved in 1996, has been operational since 2006 and has seen about Rs 393 crore in spending, with the row surfacing during municipal campaigns in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad.