Don't raze scam-tainted Adarsh Housing Society, says CAG

Nagpur, Dec 23: The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has opposed demolition of Mumbai's scam -hit Adarsh Housing Society building and termed the entire episode as a classic example of "fence eating the crops".

In its report, tabled in Maharashtra Legislative Assembly today, the Government auditor said the suggestion to raze the 31-storey structure in upscale Colaba area is "hasty and inadequately considered".

Its demolition would compound the problem. An option would be for the building to be acquired by the Government and used for Government housing, the top auditor maintained.

The society members who have paid for their flats may be compensated as per law. Genuine war widows and deserving ex-servicemen could be allotted the apartments, it noted.

The entire episode is a glaring example of dereliction of duty and severe lack of probity and accountability which needs to be very seriously investigated, the CAG report said.

"The entire episode of the Adarsh Cooperative Housing Society is a classic example of fence eating the crops."

Promoters of the society were so confident of getting allotment of land that even before registration of the society and before handing over of the site on July 12, 2004, they wrote for additional FSI (floor space index) from the adjacent land in use by civic transport body BEST, the report noted.

To seek apartments in a prime location, a group of select and powerful elite resorted to falsification of records, suppression of facts and used the noble cause of welfare of ex-servicemen and their widows for allotment, the CAG stated.

The Adarsh issue came to the fore last year when it was alleged that violations of rules took place at various phases of construction of the high rise. CBI and a judicial panel are probing into the irregularities.

PTI