Mumbai: Water Resources Minister Girish Mahajan, who is under pressure from Congress and NCP to reveal name of the contractor who had reportedly offered him a huge bribe to lift stay on work orders of irrigation projects, hit back on Friday saying a few MLAs of both the parties were also involved in making the "offer" to him.
Hitting back at the NCP, which yesterday sought a narco test on him following his claims of "bribe offer", the BJP leader said he was willing to undergo the procedure provided NCP stalwarts Ajit Pawar and Sunil Tatkare too are ready for the same.
Both Pawar, former deputy chief minister and Tatkare, ex-water resources minister in erstwhile Congress-NCP government, are currently under the scanner of ACB for alleged irrigation scam under their watch.
Mahajan had caused a sensation when he said that he had stayed work orders worth Rs 1,100 crore which were hastily cleared ahead of elections by the Congress-led UPA government in the state.
"We had stayed irrigation projects worth Rs 1,100 crore sanctioned from July onwards by the previous government. I fail to understand the hurry behind sanctioning of these projects. A few days back, some contractors, along with some Congress and NCP MLAs approached me to retain these projects," Mahajan told PTI today.
Mahajan said the contractors and MLAs who approached him requested him to grant sanction to these projects promising 10 per cent commission of the total cost of projects concerned.
"These people placed their arguments before me and requested me to grant sanctions to these projects. They said we will pay you the regular fees for sanctions. I was shocked and asked them how much do you regularly pay for sanctions. They said about 10 per cent of the total amount is paid to the concerned minister for the projects," he said.
Mahajan said the irrigation department, which is conducting inquiries into various aspects like tenders passed during the tenure of previous government, the escalation in the cost of projects, quality of material being supplied for irrigation projects, will soon reveal the "corrupt practices" that were "prevalent" in the department.
"Very soon we will be revealing the corrupt practices
that were being followed by the previous government's water resources department. We do not need to fear anything because we stand by our mantra of clean governance. We will not take bribes and will not let anybody take bribes," the minister said.
This bribing incident shows the extent to which the corrupt were playing with the public money. We will not spare the corrupt, he added.
"I am ready to undergo a narco test happily. But let Ajit dada (Pawar) and Sunil Tatkare also undergo the test with me. These people have looted the state. If you say yes for the test, I am ready to spill the beans on these bribe givers even without a narco. Let the truth come out now. We will know who is honest and who is corrupt," he said.
The NCP had yesterday alleged that Mahajan was not revealing the name of the contractor who had made a bribe offer, because the latter has links with BJP.
