The Public Accounts Committee of Maharashtra Legislature has rapped the then Congress-led government in 2009 for not taking action against a trust run by former president Pratibha Patil's daughter Jyoti Rathore, despite violation of certain norms.
The report, tabled in the recently-concluded session of the legislature, pointed out that no action was taken against Rathore's Maharashtra Mahila Udyam Trust which failed to complete the construction of a school building for which it had received government land.
"In 2009, the trust was given 47,300 sqmt land for construction of buildings for primary and secondary school... in Pune district. Another 32,000 sqmt land was given for playground with an annual rent of Rs 1. However, the trust did not deposit the requisite 25 per cent amount of the capital expenditure in bank," PAC said.
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had said in its report that as the project cost was Rs 13.44 crore, Rs 3.36 crore should have been deposited in the trust's bank account, while the account had only Rs 83 lakh, the PAC noted.
On the other hand, a revenue department official told the PAC that the project cost was Rs 8 crore and the trust's bank account had Rs 2.54 crore, the report added.
The PAC sought to know why was the land not taken back from the trust despite violation of norms.
Further, while the construction was supposed to be completed within three years, it was not yet complete even in June 2017, the PAC said.
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