The State government has set up a one-member panel to study the recommendations of the Gaikwad Committee, which probed the alleged ₹6,000 crore scam in the Tribal Welfare Department during the previous Congress-NCP regime. The panel was set up under retired IAS officer Prabhakar Karandikar.
The Gaikwad Committee was instituted to inquire into the alleged ₹6,000 crore scam between 2004 and 2009 during the tenure of NCP leader and Tribal Welfare Minister Vijaykumar Gavit, who is now a BJP MLA. A prominent BJP tribal leader, Mr. Gavit is MLA from Nandurbar and his daughter is a BJP Rajya Sabha MP.
The five-member committee, headed by former judge Justice M.G. Gaikwad, was appointed by the government on April 15, 2014 on an order of the Bombay High Court in March 2014. A PIL was filed in the HC in 2014, alleging the Tribal Welfare Department made purchases without calling for tenders.
