Maharashtra Minister bungalow row: Opposition seeks CM Devendra Fadnavis’ reply

Maharashtra Co-operation, Marketing and Textiles minister Subhash Deshmukh. (File)

Accusing the state government of turning a blind eye to irregularities in the construction of a minister’s personal bungalow in Solapur city, Opposition parties on Tuesday demanded that Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis give his response on the subject.

Referring to a report in Tuesday’s edition of The Indian Express about Co-operation, Marketing and Textiles minister Subhash Deshmukh’s bungalow on a plot reserved for a fire brigade centre and a garden, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and former minister Jayant Patil said in the Legislative Assembly: “As the bungalow is built by a BJP minister, the issue has not been given required attention. The bungalow was constructed despite the minister knowing about the reservation on the plot. It was constructed with the confidence that the reservation can be changed. This is a very serious matter.”

Patil said a minister’s bungalow on a reserved plot would set a wrong precedent. The Indian Express reported that although the plot bore a reservation, the Building Permissions section of Solapur Municipal Corporation gave approvals for the construction twice —- in April 2004 and July 2012 —- though both times on the condition that a final decision of the state government regarding cancelling the reservation would be binding on Deshmukh and the co-owners of the plot of land.

The reservation currently remains intact, and Deshmukh and his co-owners will appear in front of Solapur Municipal Commissioner Avinash Dhakane on Wednesday for a hearing in the matter.

“The Chief Minister is known to give clean chits to ministers. We want to see how he defends Deshmukh on this issue,” Patil said in the Assembly.

Deshmukh was not available for comment on Tuesday. When contacted earlier, he refused to comment saying only that it was a matter pertaining to his personal bungalow.

Deshmukh and nine others purchased the land in 2000 and subsequently approached the municipality seeking permissions for construction.

Even as the fire brigade department of the civic body discussed acquiring the land for developing a fire station, construction permissions were given on the condition that the final decision of the state government regarding cancelling the reservation on the land would be binding on the land owner.