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Chavan camp trains gun on Deshmukh, Shinde

MUMBAI: The Adarsh housing scam now threatens to rock the Union cabinet. Even as Union ministers Vilasrao Deshmukh and Sushilkumar Shinde are eyeing the Maharashtra chief minister's post, supporters of chief minister Ashok Chavan say that, leave alone being considered for the state's top post, these two leaders should be asked to step down from the Union ministry. They say that if Chavan is asked to step down even though he had only a "minor role'', then Deshmukh and Shinde, during whose chief ministerships the bulk of the processing occurred, should also quit their posts. The CM's camp has prepared a note detailing the alleged roles played by Deshmukh and Shinde in the controversial land allotment. This note is part of a dossier which will be given to Union ministers Pranab Mukherjee and A K Antony who have been asked by Congress president Sonia Gandhi to ascertain the facts of the case. Along with this note, 11 letters vital to this land deal will be attached as exhibits. The CM's camp says Adarsh society had asked for land in Colaba in 1999 when Narayan Rane was chief minister of the Shiv Sena-BJP government. Later it made the request to the new Congress CM, Vilasrao Deshmukh, on February 7, 2000. Deshmukh endorsed the letter and ordered that the proposal be put up immediately. The government asked the Mumbai collector for his report, which was submitted on May 12, 2000. The collector's report stated that this was state government land and constituted a part of a road alignment in unauthorised possession of the army. The army later gave an NOC on April 5, 2000 on the grounds that the land was outside the defence boundary. The Urban Development department, headed by Deshmukh, reduced the width of the proposed road from 60 m to 18 m on April 10, 2002, thereby earmarking land in a residential zone which was then processed for allotment. The file for granting the letter of intent was processed by the revenue department and approved by then CM Deshmukh on his last day in office, January 18, 2003. The UD department later, headed by the new CM Sushilkumar Shinde, wrote to the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests seeking clarification on the CRZ issue. The Union ministry, vide its letter on March 11, 2003, stated that the powers were delegated to the state government. Accordingly, Shinde asked the BMC to permit construction. The land allotment to the society was approved with 20 members initially by an order dated July 9, 2004 by then revenue minister Shivajirao Nilangekar Patil and then CM Shinde. Shinde also approved the next list of 51 members vide his order dated August 24, 2004. He also delegated powers to the Mumbai collector on September 20, 2004, to approve new members. Deshmukh, who succeeded Shinde as CM, then sanctioned the use of the FSI of the adjacent BEST depot land by Adarsh by an order dated August 5, 2005. Thus the society was given building permission for an original 3,824 sq m and an additional 2,669 sq m by the BMC on September 23, 2005. The note says that the land was never ever reserved for war widows or war heroes leave alone those affected by the Kargil war. The original application does not mention Kargil widows, but only in a follow-up letter in June 2006 a request was made to accommodate some of them in the society which was approved by the government. Chavan says that only the file for granting a Letter of Intent was routed through him when he was the revenue minister and it was finally approved by Deshmukh.

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