Jaipur — A major exposé has revealed alleged deep-rooted corruption in Rajasthan’s Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), the flagship central scheme aimed at providing tap water to every household (“Har Ghar Jal”). Documents accessed by Expose Now suggest that 13 engineers and contracting firms involved in irregularities worth crores of rupees in Udaipur and Banswara districts have faced no action even after two years, with 16 CCA (Charge Sheet) files reportedly suppressed.
According to internal PHED (Public Health Engineering Department) correspondence, some honest officials have pushed for strict action under RTPP (Rajasthan Transparency in Public Procurement) rules and 16 CCA provisions. However, higher authorities—including certain senior PHED officials and ministry-level figures—are accused of shielding the guilty, turning the department into a “protective shield” for the alleged scamsters.Key Allegations from the InvestigationPhysical verification in blocks such as Gadi and Arthuna (Banswara) and Mavli and Kotra (Udaipur) uncovered significant irregularities and fraud in JJM works. An investigation team reportedly found 2 Executive Engineers (EEs), 4 Assistant Engineers (AENs), and 7 Junior Engineers (JENs) directly responsible—totaling 13 engineers.
Despite this, the department allegedly proposed action only against a few:
- EE Dhanaram Chauhan
- AEN Shyamlal Charpota
- JENs Nitish Upadhyay and Purushottam Parmar
The proposals against them are said to contain flaws that could prevent any real punishment. The remaining 9 engineers—including EE Banne Singh Meena, AEN Payal Vyas, AEN Manohar Singh, AEN Mayank Damor, and JENs Deepak Joshi, Vinod Kumar, Deepak Sharma, Pritesh Jain, and Rahul Vaishnav—are allegedly being protected without any clear justification provided.Additional Chief Engineer Shaitan Singh (Udaipur Region) is accused of repeatedly ignoring over 35 directives from the Chief Engineer (JJM) at headquarters to initiate action. Reminders sent between May 2024 and August 2025 were reportedly ignored, amounting to “gross negligence and contempt of higher offices.”Payments to Defaulter FirmsThe report also highlights moves to release pending payments to blacklisted or defaulter firms such as M/s Jagdish Prasad Agrawal and G.A. Infra Private Limited. Headquarters instructions reportedly allow payments after only 5–10% work verification—a step critics call a mere formality that could enable further irregularities and benefit defaulting contractors.
Questions Raised
The exposé raises several pointed questions:
- Who is the “mastermind” suppressing the 16 CCA files (charge sheets) that were prepared but never served to the accused officers?
- Is there political pressure or a “commission racket” involved, with public representatives’ recommendations cited to fast-track payments to defaulter firms?
- Will the new Principal Secretary of PHED take concrete steps to address the alleged organized corruption syndicate in the Udaipur division?
The article notes that while people in Udaipur and Banswara continue to wait for reliable water supply, files related to the scam are allegedly gathering dust.This is based on a special report published by Expose Now on April 20, 2026, authored by Ravindar Kumar, citing internal departmental letters and documents. No independent confirmation or official response from the named officials or PHED is available in the source material. The broader Jal Jeevan Mission in Rajasthan has seen multiple related probes and arrests in recent years involving larger alleged irregularities, but this report focuses specifically on the Udaipur-Banswara cases and internal protection claims.Further investigation by authorities would be needed to verify the allegations.
