Seven FIRs lodged against 12 officials in irrigation project

Maharashtra's Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Wednesday filed seven new FIRs against 12 senior officers of Vidarbha Irrigation Development Corporation (VIDC) for alleged irregularities in award of tenders for Gosekhurdh irrigation project, an official said. A special team of the ACB Nagpur had been investigating the alleged irregularities in award of seven tenders to contractors in the irrigation project at Gosekhurdh in Bhandara district of the Vidarbha region, he said.

The ACB found that 12 senior officers, who were with VIDC at that time, committed irregularities in award of the tenders, he said. Following this, the anti-graft agency on Tuesday lodged a complaint at the Sadar police station in Nagpur and got the FIRs registered against the officers under the Prevention of Corruption Act on Wednesday, he said.

Most of the officers named in the FIRs worked in engineering and accounts departments. In the past, too, the ACB, which has been probing alleged irregularities in execution of the project, has filed multiple FIRs.

The project on the river Wainganga, coming under VIDC's jurisdiction, involves construction of a dam and a network of water canals. Irregularities were found in Mokhaburdi, Osalamendha, Nerla (Paghora), Gosekhurdh Left Canal, Gosekhurdh Right Canal and Ghodajari canal segments, the official said.

The irrigation project was approved in March 1983 at an estimated cost of Rs 372.22 crore and was expected to be completed by March 1990. However, it still remains incomplete. Meanwhile, the ACB has also filed seven more FIRs against contractors and officials in connection with the alleged irregularities in the Mahagaon irrigation project in the Amravati division..