Ajit Pawar alleges Rs 500 crore scam during Fadnavis-led govt

Ajit Pawar, the Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, has accused the state Information and Publicity Department of a scam worth Rs 500 crore during the tenure of the previous government led by Devendra Fadnavis.

Pawar has claimed that officials approved media advertisements worth more than Rs 500 crore in 2019 without the sanction of the chief minister. He has demanded the current Chief Minister, Eknath Shinde, to take action against the officials involved in the alleged scam.

"The officials mentioned in the file that the chief minister had been informed about the expenditure of Rs 500 crore for publishing advertisements without actually taking sanction from him," Pawar said during a speech in the Assembly.

The Fadnavis-led government, a coalition of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Shiv Sena (undivided), ruled Maharashtra from 2014 to 2019. The information and publicity department is handled by the chief minister. Pawar further claimed that in 2019-20, the government withheld the payment of these advertisement bills since there was no approval. However, the current government has now ordered the payments, which Pawar called "serious" and urged the government not to support such activities.

He also demanded that the culprits should be punished with suspension, stating that the approval of the chief minister is mandatory for media advertisements. Pawar alleged that approval was given for advertisements of more than Rs 500 crore without the sanction from the chief minister during the 2019 election year.

While not naming Brijesh Singh, who was the Director General of the Information and Publicity Department in 2019, Pawar claimed that the probe into the approval of advertisements conducted under the current Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray indicted the then Principal Secretary of Social Justice and the DG of Information and Publicity, who is now with the Chief Minister's office as Principal Secretary.

The probe report had also stated that all departments should obtain the sanction of the Chief Secretary, the Minister concerned, and the Deputy Chief Minister, who holds the finance department, Pawar added.