Mumbai, Dec 13 (IANS): In a major setback to the Nationalist Congress Party, the Maharashtra government cleared the decks for an open Anti-Corruption Bureau probe against three top leaders allegedly involved in the multi-crore irrigation scam, here Friday.

They are former deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar and his ministerial colleagues Sunil Tatkare, presently state NCP chief, and Chhagan Bhujbal, senior OBC leader.

An assurance to this effect was given to the Bombay High Court, Nagpur bench, by Advocate-General Sunil Manohar.

"I have been authorized by chief minister of Maharashtra to state that he has cleared open inquiries by the ACB against Ajit Pawar, Sunil Tatkare and Chhagan Bhujbal," Manohar informed the court in a PIL hearing.

"The ACB proposal had come to us and we have already approved it. Today (Friday) we have informed the court. There will be an impartial probe and the law will take its own course," Fadnavis told the media later.

The probe will ascertain the roles played by Ajit Pawar and Tatkare in the mega-irrigation scam during their tenures as irrigation ministers at various points in the past 15 years of the Congress-NCP rule.

Bhujbal would be probed for his role as the PWD minister in the alleged irregularities in the construction of the Maharashtra Sadan in New Delhi and two other government buildings in Mumbai.

"It is their government...They are at liberty to do what they want. They had said this before the elections and now they are doing it," Ajit Pawar, nephew of ailing NCP President Sharad Pawar said, reacting to the media on the issue.

The ACB had sought the government's permission Aug 23 for an open investigation against the three NCP leaders.

Earlier, senior BJP leader and MP Kirit Somaiya had met ACB Director-General Pravin Dixit urging him to expedite the probe.

In fact, when Fadnavis was a BJP MLA, he had targeted the then ruling Congress-NCP government on the issue of corruption which also became a poll plank in the May Lok Sabha and Oct assembly elections in the state which the two parties lost heavily.

The irrigation scam figured during the election campaigns and a PIL was filed in the court by a social activist Pravin Wategaonkar who alleged corruption in at least 12 cases, pegged at over Rs.70,000 crore.

After the scam was exposed and scathing observations were made by the CAG, Ajit Pawar had resigned as deputy CM in Sep 2012 for a few months and the state government appointed an expert committee headed by Madhav Chitale to probe the allegations.

The Chitale Committee, which spoke about irregularities, submitted its report to the state government in March this year which was tabled in the assembly.