Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan on Friday made it clear that the two-member enquiry commission report on the Adarsh society scam will not be tabled in the monsoon session of the Assembly.
Mr. Chavan’s about-turn comes two days after Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar announced that the commission report would be presented in the Assembly.
“The Action Taken Report [ATR] on the commission report is not yet ready. Hence it cannot be presented in this session,” said Mr. Chavan, in the Legislative Council, on the last day of the monsoon session.
Mr. Pawar, of the Nationalist Congress Party, claimed that his announcement regarding the report was done only after Mr. Chavan’s approval.
“Though it was I who made the announcement, I was told to do so by Mr. Chavan,” he said, leaving his ally from the Congress to face the Opposition’s wrath.
“We have been demanding that the report be tabled in the House ever since the session began. The Chief Minister delayed it and today [Friday], after Mr. Pawar’s statement, it is clear that the Chief Minister wants to protect certain officers named in the report,” said Devendra Fadanavis, senior BJP MLA.
According to Opposition sources, the report has given a clean chit to the former Chief Minister, Ashok Chavan.
“A clean chit to him means that he will start chalking out a strategy to reclaim his post. He [Prithviraj Chavan] does not want that,” said a senior BJP leader.
Mr. Ashok Chavan had to resign after it was revealed that his family members owned flats in a society which was formed to help martyrs of the Kargil war.
