Nagpur, Mar 4 (TOI): The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) informed the Nagpur bench of the Bombay high court on Thursday that it will be conducting an inquiry into 40 irrigation projects where large-scale irregularities were found.

Associate advocate general Rohit Deo said that the government will complete the probe within six months.
The ACB has already started an inquiry into four projects where maximum complaints were received. It had even lodged a police complaint in the Ghodazari branch canal case where the contractor had allegedly forged the documents . The ACB intends to lodge another FIR next week, but it refused to name the project. In an affidavit in court, Nagpur ACB superindendent Mahesh Chimote informed that besides Ghodazari, an investigation has been initiated in Mokhabardi lift irrigation scheme and the Gosikhurd left- and right-bank canals. He added the ACB had entrusted the task to 18 officers to simultaneously conduct inquiries into the remaining 36 projects. The petitioner, Jan Manch president Anil Kilor, through his counsel, Firdos Mirza, demanded a work audit of all pending projects, which were stuck up due to "graft and irregularities". A division bench comprising Justice Bhushan Gavai and Justice Pradeep Deshmukh directed the government to explore if a committee could be constituted to conduct such an audit. The government was told to take help of experts like Vijay Pandhre, former chief engineer of the water resources department, to conduct the "audit".

Chimote had earlier informed that after the court's orders , the government on February 18, 2015, ordered an open inquiry into all projects under the Vidarbha Irrigation Development Corporation through the ACB. Subsequently, the ACB director-general had directed the SP to conduct an inquiry into allegations of corruption in Gosikhurd projects.

Subsequently, the SP started the probe from March 31, 2015 and convened a meeting with the inquiry officer on April 27, 2015 to discuss the inquiry's scope. However, it was decided to limit the scope from April 1, 2006, to March 31, 2010, as several documents were needed to be examined during the investigation. It was pointed out that there over 200 contracts valued at Rs 1 crore and above and probe into all these would take long time. Therefore, it was decided to conduct a probe into 40 contracts worth over Rs 25 crore.