The Opposition had stalled the proceedings of House last week while demanding a probe by SIT following a white paper presented by the state government on irrigation projects in the state, particularly Vidarbha.
Maharashtra government today announced a probe by a Special Investigation Team into the alleged irrigation scam, bowing to pressure from the Opposition which stalled the proceedings of the state legislature for five days.
The announcement by Water Resources Minister Sunil Tatkare came a little over a fortnight after a government 'Whitepaper' virtually gave a clean chit to senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar, paving the way for his return as Deputy Chief Minister earlier this month.
"The SIT probe will be headed by Madhav Chitaley, an irrigation expert, and the terms and references of the probe would be finalised by December 31," Tatkare told the House.
A determined Opposition had blocked the proceedings of the legislature seeking an inquiry by SIT into a multi-crore scam in various irrigation projects, particularly in the drought-prone Vidarbha region.
Leader of Opposition Eknath Khadse, while welcoming the SIT probe, demanded that the SIT's terms and references be made public and that officers allegedly facing corruption charges be kept out of the probe team.
MNS group leader Bala Nandgaokar and PWP's Ganpatrao Deshmukh also welcomed the probe and demanded its conclusion within a time frame.
Khadse said since PILs were pending before the High Court over the alleged scam, the government should inform it about the proposed SIT inquiry and seek court's guidelines on how to go about it.
Tatkare informed the House that the inquiry will not pose any hurdle in completion of pending projects.
A week after the 'whitepaper' virtually gave a clean chit to Ajit Pawar, nephew of NCP chief and Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, the former was sworn in as Deputy Chief Minister on December 7.
The dramatic announcement of resignation of Pawar on September 25, 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.
Pawar, 53, had resigned after media reports alleged he had arbitrarily awarded irrigation contracts worth over Rs20,000 crore when he was state's irrigation minister during 1999-2009, before he was elevated as Deputy Chief Minister and handled the important finance and energy portfolios.
Opposition BJP and Shiv Sena had reacted sharply to the reinduction of Pawar and demanded that he face a probe by a Special Investigation Team.
Khadse had alleged that Ajit Pawar was brought back as his deputy by Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan under pressure from NCP.
The white paper, presented by the irrigation department to the state cabinet on November 29, had claimed a 28 per cent increase in irrigation potential in Maharashtra in the last ten years.
It was described as a status paper on irrigation and not an investigation report.
Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan had announced a white paper would be brought after the economic survey report said the state's irrigation potential had risen barely by 0.1 per cent between 2001 and 2010 despite over Rs 70,000 crore being spent on various projects.
All these years the irrigation portfolio was with the NCP.
Later, Tatkare also made the announcement about the SIT probe in the Legislative Council where it was greeted with thumping of desks by the Opposition.
Leader of Opposition Vinod Tawde, however, said the announcement came quite late.
He said the government should take the Opposition into confidence while deciding on the the terms of reference for the inquiry.
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