Adarsh enquiry commission names four former CMs of Maharashtra

Mah Govt tables ‘Adarsh’ probe

report but rejects inferences

* The report of two-member panel names four former Chief Ministers including late Vilasrao Deshmukh, Sushilkumar Shinde, Ashok Chavan; Shivajirao Nilangekar Patil, ministers Sunil Tatkare and Rajesh Tope for ‘political patronage’ to Adarsh Co-operative Housing Society
* Calls the entire episode a ‘shameless tale of blatant violations of statutory provisions, Rules and Regulations’
* Also names 12 bureaucrats for violation of Service Conduct Rules
* Of 102 ‘approved’ members, 25 have been found ‘ineligible’ including late Babasaheb Kupekar, Suresh Prabhu, Devyani Khobragade, and Abhay Sancheti

By Kartik Lokhande
NAGPUR, Dec 20: Maharashtra Government, on Friday, tabled before the State Legislature the final report of two-member Commission of Inquiry on Adarsh Co-operative Housing Society scam in a hush-hush manner with mere one page Action Taken Report which accepted the only convenient conclusions about ownership of land and purpose of society.

Opposition leaders tore the report on Adarsh scam after it was rejected by the DF Government. Leader of Opposition (Council) Vinod Tawde commented on a few scathing observations in the report. After the noise and prorogation of winter session of State Legislature, the workers were busy cleaning up the Vidhan Bhavan premises in Nagpur, by collecting torn pages of the report. (Pics by Satish Raut)

However, the Government rejected the politically embarassing inferences drawn in 691-page Volume-II of the report that was tabled on the last day of winter session of State Legislature in which politically unpalatable strictures against former Chief Ministers, senior bureaucrats and ineligible beneficiaries including benami owners were made and ruling establishment was pulled up for tweaking rules, and high and mighty were indicted for their shameless greed and quid-pro-quo.
Earlier in the day, Maharashtra Cabinet discussed the report and rejected inferences drawn in Volume-II of the extensive report. Though the report was tabled, its Volume-I was not tabled. The Opposition alleged that the Government had tabled ‘incomplete’ report. Leader of Opposition (Assembly) Eknath Khadse accused the Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan of shielding those involved in the scam.
In the report, it has been stated that the land on which Adarsh CHS was built belongs to the Government of Maharashtra and not to the Ministry of Defence. Further, it has stated that the land in question or membership of the society was ‘not reserved’ for Defence personnel or Kargil War heroes. The Government agreed to both the observations. However, it rejected other conclusions including those of political patronage, non-compliance of various provisions pertaining to town planning, Coastal Regulatory Zone (CRZ), Development Control Rules (DCR) etc.
The Commission of Inquiry has made some scathing remarks over the entire episode and collusion of different stake-holders including the bureaucrats, politicians, and the officials of Armed Forces. “The case of the Adarsh CHS is neither ideal nor a role model but a bad precedent,” the report states. It adds, “Adarsh is not a saga of ideal co-operation but it is a shameless tale of blatant violations of statutory provisions, Rules and Regulations. It reflects greed, nepotism and favouritism on the part of some people who were, in one way or the other associated with the Adarsh CHS.”
Calling the entire episode as a ‘sad story of unscrupulous greed of some persons’ closely connected with the said society, the Commission has observed that some flat-holders in the society secured flats for ‘their dears and nears’. For the purpose, it states, they went even to the extent of making benami transactions. “That such an episode should take place in the progressive state of Maharashtra is a matter of deep regret,” it added.
The Commission has observed clearly that the procedure followed by Adarsh CHS for proposing the names for its membership was ‘arbitrary’ and it ‘lacked transparency’ giving scope for ‘nepotism and favouritism’. It has passed a scathing remark against Mumbai Collector for verification of membership applications of the controversial society in a ‘superficial and slipshod’ manner. The eligibility of several members was not properly and fully verified vis-a-vis the eligibility criteria. The applications also were not fully filled in and bore no date. Still, they were entertained and forwarded for approval of membership to the Government.
As far as violations of norms is concerned, the report categorically states, “Adarsh CHS had never applied to the Ministry of Environment and Forests for CRZ clearance through Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority.” In fact, letters were ‘erroneously treated and interpreted as CRZ clearance and wrongly acted upon as such by MMRDA’, it added.
It may be recalled here that the Government had appointed a two-member Commission headed by retired High Court Justice J A Patil and comprising former Chief Secretary P Subramanyam in January 2011 to probe Adarsh Co-operative Housing Society (CHS) scam. The Commission was given specific issues like ownership of land in question, reservation of the plot, violation of norms related to town planning and coastal regulatory zone, role of public servants, benami flats etc. After probe, the Commission submitted its report to Maharashtra Government on April 18, 2013. However, the Government had shied away from tabling the report before the State Legislature. Following the Opposition uproar and a case filed in the Bombay High Court, the Government stated that it would table the report during winter session. Accordingly, Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan tabled the report on last day of winter session.

Reports names Shinde, Ashok Chavan, Tatkare, Tope The report mentions in clear terms that Adarsh CHS ‘enjoyed political patronage’ of four former Chief Ministers, and two former Ministers of State. It names former Chief Ministers namely late Vilasrao Deshmukh, Sushilkumar Shinde (who is currently Union Home Minister), Shivajirao Nilangekar Patil (who was the then Revenue Minister), and Ashok Chavan.
Of these, Chavan had to quit the post of Chief Minister after the Adarsh CHS scam came to fore. Two relatives of Chavan, including his mother-in-law Bhagwati Sharma and wife of brother-in-law Seema Vinod Sharma, have been named in the report. Seema Sharma is wife of Vinod Sharma, brother of Chavan’s wife Amita, has been found ‘ineligible’ to become a member of Adarsh society. The Commission has observed that she was given membership of the society despite her being ineligible. Bhagwati Sharma, mother-in-law of Chavan, also ‘was not eligible’ to become member of the society but was still granted membership.
The Commission of Inquiry also names former Revenue Minister Shivajirao Nilangekar Patil, the then Ministers of State Sunil Tatkare and Rajesh Tope. Of these, Tatkare is currently Water Resources Minister and Tope is Higher and Technical Education Minister.
After the report was tabled in Legislative Assembly, Tatkare and Tope made statements that they were not held guilty by the Commission. They said that they merely conducted a meeting each in which only discussions were held and no decision was taken pertaining to the controversial 31-storey structure in Colaba.
However, a look at the relevant paragraphs of the report reveals that the Commission has expressed ‘displeasure’ at the conduct of Tatkare and Tope ‘who tried to meddle with the issue of Adarsh CHS when it was not within the purview of the distribution of their work.’ The Commission has also wondered, “Why should they go out of the way and show such unwarranted attempts to favour Adarsh CHS?”

Devyani Khobragade among ineligible members
The report has found 25 out of 102 ‘approved’ members ineligible. Among those found ineligible are former Speaker of Legislative Assembly late Babasaheb Kupekar, former Union Minister Suresh Prabhu, Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade, Nagpur-based Abhay Sancheti, Vice-Admiral (Retd) Madanjitsingh, Sanjoy Sankaran, Kailash Gidwani, Rupali Raorane, Ranjit Sangitrao and others.

22 benami transactions
It has found 22 cases of benami transactions that are prohibited under law. In the paragraph pertaining to benami transactions, the Commission of Inquiry has named real owners. These include Nagpur-based firm Landscraper Realtor Private Limited and San Finance Corporation of Abhay Sancheti.

12 bureaucrats held guilty of violations Among the public servants who have been found guilty of violation of Service Conduct Rules are former Secretary to Chief Minister Subhash Lala, former Mumbai Collector Dr Pradeep Vyas, former Municipal Commissioner Dr Jairaj Phatak, former Principal Secretary (Urban Development) Ramanand Tiwari, former Secretary to Chief Minister C S Sangitrao, former Chief Secretary Dr D K Sankaran, former Mumbai Collector I A Kundan, former Principal Secretary (UD-1) Thomas Benjamin, former Deputy Secretary (UD) P V Deshmukh, former MMRDA Commissioners Suresh Joshi and T Chandrashekhar, and former Chief Town and Country Planner Umesh Luktuke.

Role of Army officers ‘suspicious’: Report In its report, the Commission of Inquiry has observed that role of some of the Army officers was ‘suspicious’. It found that some of the Army officers had ‘failed’ in their duty and ‘adopted such a conduct which proved helpful’ to the Adarsh CHS in getting possession of the land in a manner other than by due procedure. The Commission has dubbed as ‘suspicious’ the conduct of Major General T K Kaul, Col T K Sinha, Major General A R Kumar, Brigadier M M Wanchoo and others who subsequently became members of the Adarsh CHS and got allotment of suitable flats. “It is for the Ministry of Defence to inquire into the conduct of these officers qua Adarsh CHS and take appropriate decision in the matter,” it has observed as the Army officers are not civil servants. 

(Published in The Hitavada all edition as lead story on December 21, 2013)