Land row: CAG report tabled in Maha Assembly

CNN-IBN | 18 Jun 2013 11:21 am

Mumbai: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report on a possible land scam has been tabled in the Maharashtra Assembly. The report had indicted senior ministers including former Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh for allegedly allotting land at discounted prices to trusts run by them.

The CAG report that was leaked alleged that Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh during his tenure as the Maharashtra chief minister made inappropriate land allotments. The CAG report named five senior politicians for alleged irregularities in land allotments.

The report named Deshmukh along with Maharashtra cabinet ministers Narayan Rane, Chhagan Bhujbal, Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil and Patangrao Kadam as having being involved in allotting land at subsidised rates.

However, Deshmukh declined to comment on the report. "I can't comment on a leaked report. Now the authentic report has been placed on the floor of the House, so unless and until I go through it, it will be very difficult, because on what grounds they have commented on it will be hard to tell. The CAG report is not coming out for the first time. This is a routine matter, every year they come out, then go before the House, then before the PAC."

"From day one we have been telling that the land belongs to the state government and accordingly it was allotted to the society as per the land dispersal rules of the government. So with this report, I think our stand is totally vindicated. The ownership of the land and whether there was any reservation for the Kargil land widows, that was the main contention on which the whole hype was created. Now these two issues were very critical and they have been vindicated, the other issues are before the Commission," he said.

Several legislators have also been accused of having been given fake income certificates and allotted flats meant only for those under the affordable housing schemes.

According to the CAG report, former ministers Nitin Raut, Vasant Purke and Ajit Ghorpade also showed low incomes to get homes in the Aashirwad Cooperative Housing Society.

The report was tabled after there was ruckus in the Maharashtra Assembly on Monday and the Opposition demanded that the report be tabled in the Assembly.

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