Pune: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar on Sunday demanded resignation of Cooperation Minister Subhash Deshmukh over his alleged illicit construction of a bungalow in Solapur. “He has misused his position to erect a mansion on a prime government land. He has no right to continue as a minister. He must step down immediately,” Mr. Pawar said in Baramati.
Solapur Municipal Commissioner Avinash Dhakne, in a report to the Bombay High Court on Friday, had dubbed the construction illegal. Mr. Deshmukh’s two-storey residence at Majarewadi on Hotgi Road was allegedly built on the government land reserved for Solapur Municipal Corporation’s fire brigade department, a 25-page report submitted to the HC said.
The civic body has also decided to recall permissions granted for the conditional construction of the minister’s bungalow.
Dismissing allegations, the minister said he had purchased the plot in 2000 and had built the bungalow with his hard-earned money. “I have not grabbed anybody else’s property. If my structure is proved illegal, I am ready to demolish it,” he said.
A social activist had filed a public interest litigation against Mr. Deshmukh in the Bombay High Court in 2016, alleging that the BJP leader had misused his position to build an unauthorised bungalow on government land.