Jalyukt Shivar plaint sifting to take 6 months: Maha Minister

The classification ofcomplaints related to the Jalyukt Shivar project would take atleast six months and only then can it be decided which ofthese would be probed, said Maharashtra minister ShankarraoGadakh on Monday.

The Uddhav Thackeray government had recently orderedan probe into the Jalyukt Shivar project, a flagship scheme ofthe previous Devendra Fadnavis government aimed at increasingwater storage for irrigation, after reports of irregularitiescame up.

''There are are over six lakh works that were taken upunder the Jalyukt Shivar project. Funds of Rs 9,500 crore werespent. Classification of complaints will be done by acommittee in six months, and some of them will be probed,''Gadakh, the state's Soil and Water Conservation minister,said.

He also said his department was facing a cash crunchdue to the coronavirus outbreak and lockdown and 40 per centof the Rs 2,800 crore sanctioned in the budget had arrived.

He said the state government will spend Rs 140-150crore to revive the Water and Land Management Institute(WALMI) here.