Ashok Chavan: Adarsh wasn’t reserved for Kargil heroes

Chavan said: “The way in which newspapers and the electronic media called it ‘profit for Kargil’,a perception was created. This is an age of perception…No one looks at the truth. Even under law,unless you are proven guilty,you are assumed innocent. If one is targeted,if there is ‘pick and choose’ then what else to call it but a conspiracy? The timing of this information was around Diwali,with the Lok Sabha date in mind,where there will be ruckus,it is like a political game. It seems planned and pre-decided,like a time bomb.”

Chavan clarified that the land given to Adarsh was never reserved for Kargil martyrs. “How can anyone make reservation in the Development Plan in 1991 for a war which happened in 1999 and a society which came up then? If we want to talk of Kargil,then is the coffin scam during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government not related to Kargil?” Chavan asked. “Does the Defence have even one document which says that the land belongs to them?” he asked.

Chavan said he was not CM between 1999-2004 when the Adarsh file moved across various departments. Between 2008 and till November 2010 when he was the Chief Minister,he never got to deal with any issue relating to Adarsh land or addressed any requests about it,he claimed. Chavan said Jagdish Sharma is not his relative and of the three relatives who got flats,one had been with the Air Force,other with the Army and the third was a LIC clerk. “I never made any benami transaction,nor did they.”