Ajit Pawar sworn-in as Maharashtra Dy CM - Friday Dec 7,2012

A week after Maharashtra Government white paper on irrigation gave Ajit Pawar(nephew of NCP President and Union Minister Sharad Pawar) a clean chit, the senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader was on Friday sworn-in as Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister at Raj Bhawan in Mumbai.

Governor K Sankaranarayanan administered oath of office to Ajit Pawar in the presence of Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan.

Opposition Sena-BJP members, which have denounced the move, kept away from the swearing-in ceremony

Note
Ajit Pawar resigned on Sep 25, 2012 in the wake of allegations of corruption in irrigation projects, had plunged the State’s Congress-NCP government into a crisis with all other 19 party ministers offering to quit.

Ajit Pawar(53) had resigned after media reports alleged he had arbitrarily awarded irrigation contracts worth over Rs. 20,000 crore when he was State’s Irrigation Minister during 1999-2009, before he was elevated as Deputy Chief Minister and handled the plum finance and energy portfolios. 

White Paper on Irrigation 

The white paper, presented by the irrigation department to the State Cabinet on Nov 29,2012 had claimed a 28 % increase in irrigation potential and and a 68-69 thousand million cubic (TMC) ft increase in water provided for industry and domestic purpose in Maharashtra in the last ten years.According to the White Paper,only Rs. 42,000 crore, and not Rs. 70,000 crore, had been spent on irrigation projects in the State during the last decade, which also included the costs of land acquisition and relief and rehabilitation.

It also boasts of the completion of 58 hydro-electric power projects with a power generation capacity of 3606 MW.

It was described as a status paper on irrigation and not an investigation report.