Nagpur: Former chief minister and Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan has demanded judicial probe under Commission of Inquiry Act against state housing minister Prakash Mehta, industries minister Subhash Desai and a Maharashtra road development corporation vice-chairman R S Mopalwar.
"Congress will strongly raise these issues in winter session of state legislature and put Devendra Fadnavis government on the mat," said Chavan in an informal chat with media persons here on Friday. "Why is Fadnavis shielding these three? When the issue of mere three acres of land appropriated by Eknath Khadse was raised, a judicial enquiry was instituted. Was it because Khadse posed a political threat to Fadnavis," asked Chavan who alleged there was a conspiracy now to let off Mehta, Desai and Mopalwar.
The former CM said Mehta case was huge and involved a scam worth Rs800 crore in slum land transfers. In the file notings, it is clearly mentioned that chief minister Fadnavis was briefed about the matter. Similarly, Mopalwar case involved several officials who purchased land at locations where the proposed Samruddhi Mahamarg (Nagpur-Mumbai communication expressway) was to be built so they could make huge profit by giving it later to government for the project," said Chavan. If the government is sincere about the probe, it should name a retired judge and set terms of reference for the enquiry, he said.
Chavan raised serious doubts over the new super highway project saying it would not be feasible. "Not every highway can bring prosperity. Instead of creating such new infrastructure, the existing highway could have been expanded with more lanes and new alignments," he said.
Chavan also demanded a thorough probe into the pesticide deaths in farms and said why such highly toxic chemicals were allowed needed to be probed. Fadnavis had recently remarked that Chavan was critical of demonetisation because of election debacle his party suffered in (Chavan's) home turf of Sangli-Karad, he countered it saying the government was yet to respond to questions raised by him.
He has been asking why there was secrecy over India joining Better Than Cash Alliance (an international forum of credit cards) during then US President Barack Obama's visit in January 2015. Chavan stressed the demonetisation was done only to benefit credit card companies who had lost business in USA due to new laws slashing their commissions.
"Congress will strongly raise these issues in winter session of state legislature and put Devendra Fadnavis government on the mat," said Chavan in an informal chat with media persons here on Friday. "Why is Fadnavis shielding these three? When the issue of mere three acres of land appropriated by Eknath Khadse was raised, a judicial enquiry was instituted. Was it because Khadse posed a political threat to Fadnavis," asked Chavan who alleged there was a conspiracy now to let off Mehta, Desai and Mopalwar.
The former CM said Mehta case was huge and involved a scam worth Rs800 crore in slum land transfers. In the file notings, it is clearly mentioned that chief minister Fadnavis was briefed about the matter. Similarly, Mopalwar case involved several officials who purchased land at locations where the proposed Samruddhi Mahamarg (Nagpur-Mumbai communication expressway) was to be built so they could make huge profit by giving it later to government for the project," said Chavan. If the government is sincere about the probe, it should name a retired judge and set terms of reference for the enquiry, he said.
Chavan raised serious doubts over the new super highway project saying it would not be feasible. "Not every highway can bring prosperity. Instead of creating such new infrastructure, the existing highway could have been expanded with more lanes and new alignments," he said.
Chavan also demanded a thorough probe into the pesticide deaths in farms and said why such highly toxic chemicals were allowed needed to be probed. Fadnavis had recently remarked that Chavan was critical of demonetisation because of election debacle his party suffered in (Chavan's) home turf of Sangli-Karad, he countered it saying the government was yet to respond to questions raised by him.
He has been asking why there was secrecy over India joining Better Than Cash Alliance (an international forum of credit cards) during then US President Barack Obama's visit in January 2015. Chavan stressed the demonetisation was done only to benefit credit card companies who had lost business in USA due to new laws slashing their commissions.
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