Umang Singhar has raised questions on the award given by the Union Jal Shakti Ministry to Khandwa district. After the district administration was accused of using AI generated photographs, the Leader of Opposition termed it a systematic digital crime and said that ‘AI was for convenience, BJP has made it a tool of corruption’.
In fact, after Khandwa district received national level honor and prize money of Rs 2 crore for its excellent performance in the Water Harvesting, Public Participation Campaign (JSJB 1.0) of the Union Jal Shakti Ministry, serious questions have been raised on this achievement. A media report alleged that AI generated photos were uploaded for the awards and the actual actions were exaggerated. However, the district administration has termed these allegations as misleading and baseless.
Khandwa district had received the first award at the national level for the best performance in the country in the ‘Jal Sanchay Jan Bhagidari Abhiyaan’ of the Central Jal Shakti Ministry. Last year in November, President Draupadi Murmu met Khandwa Collector Rishav Gupta and District Panchayat CEO Dr. Nagarjun B. Gowda was honored with this honour. Besides, an incentive amount of Rs 2 crore was also provided to the district. Under the campaign, geo-tagged photographs of more than 1 lakh 29 thousand water conservation works (ponds, stop dams, recharge pits etc.) were uploaded in Khandwa. But in December a serious controversy arose over this award. Some media reports said that AI generated fake photos and false data were used to win the award.
On this matter, Umang Singhar has now cornered the government and the Khandwa administration and accused them of fraud. He said that under the patronage of the BJP government, water conservation works were shown in Khandwa on the basis of AI generated data, fake photographs and false digital entries, whereas in reality thousands of such works do not exist on the ground. The Leader of Opposition raised serious questions in this entire matter and said that on whose orders the AI generated data and photographs were accepted without physical verification. He questioned how a national level award was given on the basis of works whose existence is now being questioned and whether such a huge digital fraud is possible without political patronage. Calling it a systematic digital crime, Umang Singhar has demanded that necessary action be taken by suspending the officers involved in this scam.
