Adarsh probe indicts four former CMs but Congress Govt. rejects report

Nagpur, Dec. 20: A two-member judicial commission that probed the Adarsh housing scam has indicted four former Maharashtra chief ministers in connection with illegal allotment of a coastal plot in a defence area, illegal construction on it, and illegal allotment of the flats.

Of the former chief ministers, indicted along with other politicians and top bureaucrats, Ashok Chavan alone has been accused of personal gain from his alleged favours to the Adarsh Cooperative Housing Society, which built a 31-storey building in Colaba, Mumbai.

Vilasrao Deshmukh has passed away while Sushil Shinde is now Union home minister. Shivajirao Nilangekar Patil was chief minister briefly in 1985 but has been indicted for the letter of (land) allotment to Adarsh as Shinde’s revenue minister in 2003-04.

Former state urban development ministers Rajesh Tope and Sunil Tatkare (now water resources minister) meddled in the Adarsh files without authority, says the report by retired high court judge J.A. Patil and former chief secretary P. Subrahmanium.

Twelve IAS officers are accused of illegally clearing the building of extra floors — six of them in exchange for Adarsh flats.

When the scandal broke in 2010, reports had said the flats were meant for Kargil martyrs’ families but were allotted to a who’s who of politicians, bureaucrats and retired generals, among others.

However, the panel’s interim (Part I) report said in mid-2012 the land belonged to the state government and not the defence ministry, and was not reserved for Kargil widows.

Part II was tabled today during the Assembly’s winter session in keeping with a high court directive — but on the session’s last day, which avoided a discussion and angered the Opposition Sena-BJP.

In its action-taken report, the state government agreed with Part I but summarily rejected the 670-page Part II, submitted on April 19.

Illegalities

Among the illegalities involved are:

Allotment of the plot to a housing society despite construction being banned there since it is surrounded by defence installations and is just 500m from the high tide line;

Violation of town planning and building laws through the addition of floor after floor and failure to leave 15 per cent of the plot as a recreation ground;

Failure to seek coastal regulatory zone clearance from the Union environment and forests ministry;

Flat allotments to 25 ineligible people (among the 102 approved Adarsh members) through a procedure that left “scope for nepotism and favouritism”. The panel also found 22 benami transactions.

History

Adarsh was conceived in 1994 but its chief promoters, defence estate officer R.C. Thakur and Brigadier (retd) M.M. Wanchoo, could not secure land in upscale Colaba where they planned flats for serving and retired defence personnel.

They sought the help of then MLC Kahnaiyyalal Gidwani, who used his political influence to secure them the plot. Gidwani died recently.

The panel says the plot had been earmarked for a plan to widen a road by 200 feet. “However… Gidwani succeeded in persuading the government to reduce the proposed width of the road and create a plot… which could be allotted to the society.”

Ashok Chavan allegedly persuaded Adarsh to set aside 40 per cent of the flats for people outside the defence services. He had to quit as chief minister in November 2010 after revelations that three of his relatives owned Adarsh flats. The Prithviraj Chavan government formed the probe panel in January 2011.

Other probes

The CBI has chargesheeted Ashok Chavan and 11 bureaucrats. But earlier this week, governor K. Sankaranarayanan refused the agency permission to prosecute Ashok Chavan. Prithviraj Chavan today refused to explain the governor’s decision in the Assembly.

Three former service chiefs had bagged flats in Adarsh. Amid talk of deprivation of Kargil widows and the building being a security threat, an army court of inquiry indicted former chiefs Deepak Kapoor and N.C. Vij along with four lieutenant generals and three major generals in March 2011.

It said “prima facie, their culpability had been exposed” and that it was for the CBI to follow it up. Defence minister A.K. Antony ordered a CBI probe into the roles played by military and defence estate officers in the scam.

Bombay High Court is hearing whether the building should be demolished.

The above is from the Telegraph.

Just two days back Rahul Gandhi had claimed in Parliament that more bills are in the pipe line to curb corruption.

This is a sample what the Congress will do.

Time and again, whenever there is an uproar against some corrupt act of the government, the government appoints a commission to go into the matter.

It takes about two years for the commission to submit its report.

In the meantime, the uproar has died down, so the government quietly rejects the report.

This has been going endlessly, so why the farce of appointing commissions when the reports are going to be rejected.

Just recently, the Supreme Court has come up with the statement the it will stop providing judges for commissions set up by governments, if their reports are going to be rejected.

I hope the Supreme Court sticks to its statement and puts it into practise.

The above just proves how necessary the Aam Aadmi Party is for the country.