A day after Maharashtra Revenue Minister Chandrakant Patil was accused of involvement in a multi-crore land scam, the State Assembly on Thursday witnessed an uproar from the Opposition benches as Mr. Patil presented his clarification inside the House. The Assembly had to be adjourned twice due to the uproar.
Addressing a press conference, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Member of the Legislative Assembly Jayant Patil on Wednesday had accused the minister of irregularities in deals for two plots in Pune district. In a press conference, he had alleged that the State exchequer incurred a loss of ₹42 crore in one of the deals. He had earlier made the allegations inside the Assembly, but his speech was expunged by Speaker Haribhau Bagde over the technical issue of not giving notice to Mr. Patil before making the allegations.
The Opposition objected to Mr. Patil’s clarification, wherein he denied any wrongdoing in the land deals.
The NCP’s Mr. Patil said, “The minister had responded to the allegations by addressing a press conference. There was no need for the clarification when the allegations were expunged from the House proceedings.” NCP leader Ajit Pawar demanded that Mr. Patil’s speech be made part of the proceedings or he be allowed to speak on the minister’s clarification.
Coming to the minister’s defence, Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar said he has the right to give his clarification to allegations made outside the House. Amid the uproar, Deputy Speaker Vijay Auti adjourned the House, first for 15 minutes and again for 20 minutes.
According to the NCP leader, a devasthan (temple) land in Haveli taluka of Pune was illegally transferred without any nazrana (premium fee) being levied. “When an appeal was made to the minister, he used his quasi-judicial powers and cleared the transaction without recovering the premium,” he said. Mr. Patil also showed papers relating to the devsthan land.
In the second case, he accused the minister of favouring a builder over land at Balewadi in Pune. The NCP leader alleged that land reserved for a playground was usurped by Shivpriya Realtors. “The minister favoured the builder,” he said, seeking his resignation.
In his clarification, the minister said the 17 hectares of land at Haveli taluka in Pune district was privately owned and not devasthan land coming under the Inam III category. Hence, the levy of premium was not necessary.
He admitted that the Pune divisional commissioner had asked for payment of premium for the transfer of land to Radhaswami Satsang in 2008. An appeal was made to the district collector that the plot did not belong to the Inam III category and no premium payment was necessary. Similarly, in the Balewadi case, Shivpriya Realtors complained about the land measurement and hence the job was transferred to another deputy superintendent of land records, the minister said.
