Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan on Saturday announced a two-member judicial inquiry headed by a retired High Court judge into the irregularities in the Adarsh Housing Society. Mr. Chavan had promised this last month during the winter session of the State Assembly and said the government was very serious about it.
Retired Bombay High Court judge J.A. Patil will head the probe and former State Chief Secretary P. Subramanian will be the member of the Commission. The inquiry would be completed in three months, Mr Chavan said. The probe would examine issues of ownership of land, whether it was meant for Kargil veterans, whether the width of the Prakash Pethe marg was reduced near the society, how the BEST plot was dereserved for residential purposes, whether there was violation of the permissible height of the building and the Coastal Zone Regulation (CRZ) and whether the members of the society were bonafide, apart from the role of public servants and their conduct. Violations of rules or norms would also be examined. In addition the Commission was asked to give it recommendations on how to prevent scams like this from recurring.
The inquiry was appointed under the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952. Meanwhile, Union Minister of State for Environment Jairam Ramesh said that the Adarsh Society was given its last chance to present its case till Monday, 5 pm. After that the Environment Ministry would take a decision which would be made public by Jan 15 or 16.
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Mr. Chavan refused to comment on whether the government had decided to sack Ramanand Tiwari, State Information Commissioner. Mr. Tiwari's son owns a flat in the Adarsh Society and he had been asked to submit his resignation. He had asked for leave which was refused by the Governor. There were reports that the government had sent a letter to the Governor to initiate the process to sack Mr. Tiwari but Mr. Chavan said he had no comments to offer. Regarding the letter from Congress president Sonia Gandhi, asking Chief Ministers to give up their discretionary quotas, Mr. Chavan said, “you will soon hear about this.” Meanwhile, the open house session on the Jaitapur nuclear project would be held sometime next week, he said.