Dayanand's World

The Irrigation Scandal in Maharashtra The Rs 35,000-crore irrigation scam in Maharashtra came to light after the Economic Survey’s observation that though Rs 70,000 crore had been spent on various projects in the last decade, the state’s irrigation potential had increased only 0.1%. That was enough for Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan to announce that the government would bring out a white paper on irrigation projects undertaken in the state. Apparently, the Chief Minister did not consult the departments concerned before making the announcement. Dy CM Ajitdada Pawar then quit the cabinet demanding that he will rejoin it only after the White Paper gives him a clean chit.. It took just 75 days for that to happen.. The irrigation portfolio has been held by the NCP since 1999, by Ajit Pawar till 2009 and after that by Sunil Tatkare. The proposal for the white paper coincided with the exposé in a section of the media about Tatkare’s alleged involvement in irregularities and...

Maharashtra Series - 2 Maharashtra’s murky politics – Politician – Contractor nexus on one hand, Ruling- Opposition partnership on the other hand… The birth of Maharashtra’s current model of irrigation corporations began during the Sena-BJP regime, inspired by the Gujarat model of corporations that issued bonds to fund their projects. The Krishna Valley Irrigation Development Corporation was the first, formed in 1996, followed by corporations in each of the state’s regions that matched the political interests of the leaders of the Shiv Sena – BJP regime – Manohar Joshi wanted a corporation for the Konkan, Eknath Khadse of the BJP wanted one for the Khandesh region of northern Maharashtra, and so on. IIIn theory, these corporations were meant to be semi-autonomous entities, run by professionals. In practice, they got hijacked by the politician-contractor nexus. Every tender was rigged in favour of a particular contractor. And the ‘Gandhiji ko baat ke khaav’ motto- let us split...

The politics behind Vishwaroopam controversy. Kamal Haasan’s film Vishwaroopam landed in big controversy in Tamil Nadu and rumours are rife that the film might be even banned by theatre owners. Trouble started brewing earlier when Kamal Haasan’s big gamble to screen the film simultaneously on DTH services like Tata Sky, Airtel came to the limelight. Apparently, he struck a Rs 50 crores deal with several DTH operators which would have made it possible to screen Vishwaroopam on DTH on the same day as its theatrical release. As soon as a leading distributor came to know about Kamal Haasan’s new distribution model, he alerted other theatre owners across Tamil Nadu. The theatre owners feel that there’ll be a huge loss in theatrical collections if Kamal Haasan goes ahead with his plan. It’s not yet clear what their future course of action would be, but they have sent a message loud and clear that they’ll not allow Kamal Haasan to air Vishwaroopam on the same day of its theatrical rel...