Sushilkumar Shinde, former Chief Minister of Maharashtra, on Thursday washed his hands of most of the important decisions related to Adarsh. In an affidavit filed before the two-member Adarsh inquiry commission, he said he did not manipulate any record or violate the code of conduct for granting sanctions to the society, as alleged by a social activist.
Meanwhile, another former Chief Minister, Ashok Chavan, who was slated to file an affidavit before the commission on Thursday, requested an extension saying his lawyer was out of town. The politician has been directed to furnish the affidavit on June 13.
Government land
Mr. Shinde, in his seven-page affidavit, said the land in question belonged to the State government and the society was at no point reserved for defence personnel or Kargil war heroes.
He said the decision to scrap the proposal of increasing the width of the adjoining Prakash Pethe Marg was taken before he took over as Chief Minister in 2003.
“I have not, during my tenure, dealt with the issue of FSI (Floor Space Index) or of raising the height of the Society building and have no personal knowledge about the same,” he said, referring to the transfer of FSI from the adjoining BEST (Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport) bus depot land to the building.
Asked whether any person, who was not eligible to become the member of the Society, was approved to be made a member of the Society, he said the verifying authority was mainly the Collector.
“Collector responsible”
“The Collector, Mumbai, was responsible as [the] competent authority for verifying the eligibility of the members. Thereafter, the same was verified by various Mantralaya officers, including Secretaries of various Departments and Ministers, who, after due scrutiny, put up the file along with their recommendations for the approval of the Chief Minister. I further say the list of members ought to have been approved by concerned authorities after due application of mind.”
In a claim that is contradictory to the one stated by the then Collector, Mr. Shinde stated in his affidavit: “The entire process of approval was to be performed by the Collector by verification of documents submitted by the persons in terms of Annexures A & B to the LOI (Letter of Intent) being the Government Resolution dated 9 July 1999 and the government had merely to confirm the same.”
Pradeep Vyas, who was Mumbai Collector from August 2002 to May 2005 had stated in his affidavit submitted before the commission a few days ago, “I, as Collector, Mumbai city District, had no authority to approve and grant any membership in the Adarsh Cooperative Housing Society when 71 members were granted membership in society vide Government Memorandum [dated] 9th July 2004 and 24th August 2004.”
Mr. Shinde stated that the land in question fell in CRZ II (Coastal Regulation Zone) and he had not dealt with any environmental clearance during his tenure as Chief Minister.
He said he had not received any complaint about the alleged irregularities in the allotment of the plot and the list of members.
Society files plea
Meanwhile, the Society on Thursday filed an application requesting the commission to summon Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests (MoEF) Jairam Ramesh and other officials of the Ministry to file an affidavit about the missing files.
“The applicant [Adarsh Society] was thereafter shocked to learn from newspapers on 14th May 2011 that files containing important correspondences between the MoEF and the UDD [Urban Development Department], the Government of Maharashtra, are missing from the MoEF,” the application stated.
It stated that the Ministry be asked to file an affidavit “disclosing the contents of the files, which have allegedly gone missing.” It also stated that the Ministry should give “reasons and manner in which the files… were allegedly lost.”
“The files are very critical for our case. Their disappearance has raised concerns,” Satish Maneshinde, counsel for the Society, told The Hindu .
The commission said it would look into the application at the right time.
