Fadnavis orders Lokayukta probe against housing minister Mehta
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday ordered a Lokayukta probe against Housing Minister Prakash Mehta for unauthorised transfer of extra building rights in the SRA (Slum Rehabilitation Authority) project at the MP Mills Compound in south Mumbai, originally granted to slum dwellers, to project-affected people.
The opposition has been alleging that the move was aimed at favouring a particular developer.
"After I dug deep into the MP Mills compound issue, there were many skeletons that were unearthed and I asked myself if this was another 'Adarsh' (referring to the Adarsh scam)," Fadnavis said replying to a motion moved by Leader of Opposition Dhananjay Munde in the Legislative Council.
He said said all permissions for construction on this particular land were given between 1999-2004. "As per the property card, that land is owned by the Defence Ministry. How could the previous government permit an additional FSI on the plot when it was known that it was defence land," he said.
Mehta had wrongly mentioned on the file of the project that he had kept the chief minister in loop about the transfer, which was denied by Fadnavis.
"I have decided to conduct a probe by the Lokayukta into the allegations made by the Opposition against the Housing minister, even though there was no decision taken in this particular case," he said.
The opposition has been raising the pitch for Mehta's resignation and had repeatedly stalled the proceedings during the monsoon session of the state legislature over the issue.
The
Opposition
had
also
accused
Mehta
of
incorporating
the
names
of
his
family
members
as
the
beneficiaries
of
a
slum
redevelopment
project
in
suburban
Ghatkopar.
Meanwhile,
on
allegations
against
Industries
Minister
Subhash
Desai
of
Shiv
Sena,
Fadnavis
said
the
government
will
request
the
Lokayukta
to
consider
the
case.
The opposition had alleged that Desai had illegally denotified MIDC land within two years.
"Out of 16,909 hectares of denotified land, 9,335 hectares were denotified by the previous government and only the notification has been issued by the present dispensation. This government has denotified only 7,734 hectares of land," Fadnavis said.
"We will request the Lokayukta to consider this case as well, but if this doesn't work out, then we will conduct an independent inquiry," he said.
The chief minister said mere denotification of land by any government does not mean that corruption has taken place.
"Nonetheless, we will probe if land was denotified to favour builders or for some other reason. There will be a fair and an independent report conducted. We will table the report of both the probes in the House," he said.
In
his
reply,
Munde
said,
"Fadnavis
is
highly
skilled
in
trying
to
confuse
members
of
the
Opposition
and
that
nobody
has
the
capability
to
match
the
CM's
expertise".
Regarding
the
allegations
of
graft
against
IAS
officer
Radheshyam
Mopalwar,
who
was
recently
removed
as
managing
director
of
the
Maharashtra
government
undertaking
MSRDC,
the
CM
said
a
joint
SIT,
consisting
a
serving
IAS
officer
and
officials
of
the
Economic
Offences
Wing,
will
be
formed
and
a
probe
will
be
conducted.
PTI