A day after Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Ashish Deshmukh said Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis should resign for failing to address farmers’ issues, the Nagpur district administration on Saturday served an eviction notice to a medical college run by Mr. Deshmukh’s family, on the grounds that the land leased for the college was being used for commercial purpose.
The notice, issued by Nagpur District Collector Sachin Kurve said the administration provided 27.17 hectares of land on lease to VSPM Trust for a medical college and a hospital. The VSPM trust, run by the Deshmukh family, constructed the Lata Mangeshkar Hospital and a medical college on the land. “It has been found that the land … is being used for commercial purposes without taking prior permission of the district administration. Such acts [violate] this office’s orders dated March 13, 1990, and December 7, 1991. Why should not 27.17 hectares of land be taken back from you?” the notice said. The trust has been given seven days’ time to reply to the eviction notice.
Mr. Deshumukh and his father, former State Congress president Ranjeet Deshmukh, did not respond to phone calls from The Hindu . The Katol MLA’s younger brother, Amol Deshmukh, who is part of Congress’s research wing, said he was not aware of the notice as he was in Delhi till Saturday morning. This is the second such notice to the Deshmukh family in the last week. A private bank has claimed that the family failed to repay a business loan of around ₹5 crore and has threatened to seize Mr. Deshmukh’s property.
