Vijay Pandhare is a former bureaucrat from

Maharashtra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...

, India. He was the Chief Engineer of the

Water Resources Water resources are natural resources of water that are potentially useful for humans, for example as a source of drinking water supply or irrigation water. 97% of the water on the Earth is salt water and only three percent is fresh water; slight ...

Department and a member of the state level technical advisory committee. He is state executive committee Member at

Aam Aadmi Party The Aam Aadmi Party (; AAP) is a political party in India, as one of the national political parties. The AAP was founded in November 2012 by Arvind Kejriwal and his then-companions following the 2011 Indian anti-corruption movement, popular ...

Maharashtra.

Whistle blowing

Pandhare is a

whistleblower A whistleblower (also written as whistle-blower or whistle blower) is a person, often an employee, who reveals information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe or fraudulent. Whi ...

who wrote to the chief minister of the state of

and its governor alleging irregularities and cost inflation in irrigation projects. The controversy raised by these communications caused the deputy chief minister of the state

Ajit Pawar Ajit Anantrao Pawar (Marathi pronunciation: �d͡ʒit̪ pəʋaːɾ born 22 July 1959) is an Indian politician. He is the Leader of the Opposition in Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, and was the 8th Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra in his ...

to resign. In his letters he pointed out that Rs 120 billion spent on lift irrigation projects in the state are a total waste as around 99 per cent of the total 227 projects in Maharashtra are not working and 90 per cent never began functioning. Pandhare, in a letter to other engineers, alleged that corruption can be controlled by curtailing the powers. The irregularities were so serious Pandhare alleged that the government was "...playing with people's lives".

Political career

In December 2013, after his retirement from active service, Pandhare joined the

Aam Aadmi party The Aam Aadmi Party (; AAP) is a political party in India, as one of the national political parties. The AAP was founded in November 2012 by Arvind Kejriwal and his then-companions following the 2011 Indian anti-corruption movement, popular ...

(AAP). He unsuccessfully fought the

2014 Lok Sabha elections General elections were held in India in nine phases from 7 April to 12 May 2014 to elect the members of the 16th Lok Sabha. With 834 million registered voters, they were the largest-ever elections in the world until being surpassed by the 2019 ...

from

Nashik Nashik (, Marathi: aːʃik, also called as Nasik ) is a city in the northern region of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Situated on the banks of river Godavari, Nashik is the third largest city in Maharashtra, after Mumbai and Pune. Nashik ...

, losing his deposit. He secured sixth position with 9,672 votes, losing to Hemant Godse, who got 494,735 votes. Even before the election results were announced, he relocated to

Buldhana Buldhana is the district headquarters and a Municipal Council in the Buldhana District of Amravati division in the Indian State of Maharashtra. Climate Demographics As of the 2011 India census, Buldhana had a population of 67,431. Males con ...

, and declared that he won't contest elections any more. He claimed that "more than 98% of the people" associated with AAP did it merely for publicity.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pandhare, Vijay Living people Marathi people Engineers from Maharashtra Indian whistleblowers Year of birth missing (living people)