Denying that he has put pressure for the sale of a prime police land in Yerawada area to a private builder, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar Tuesday refuted claims by former Pune Police Commissioner Meeran Borwankar who said the deal did not go ahead because she opposed it. The project, Pawar said, was cancelled by the Maharashtra government as the private party which was supposed to implement it got embroiled in an Enforcement Directorate (ED) case. Without naming Borwankar, Pawar, at a press conference in Mumbai, said, “Some people are claiming that because they opposed the project, it was cancelled. The claim was made in a book and at a press conference in Delhi Monday. This is not true. The ED had taken action against the company in a particular case and therefore, the state government had decided to cancel the project.” Conceding that he had indeed met Borwankar, as claimed, Pawar said, “As the District Guardian Minister, I am supposed to review the implementation of various projects in the district. When the district officials told me that the police commissioner had opposed the Yerawada project, I called her for a meeting. At the meeting, she (Borwankar) said she did not agree with the project. I then said that it is fine.” In the same breath, Pawar said, “I might be strict but I am never rude to IAS and IPS officers. You can get it verified from the officers.” Borwankar had alleged that Pawar had lost his cool and had thrown the map of the project on the glass table placed before the two. Emphasising that the project is in the jurisdiction of the home department, Pawar said, “I neither held any meeting nor signed any paper. It was done as per the policy of the state government which has issued a GR (government resolution) for using vacant police land in Pune for the benefit of the police personnel. It was the home department which had appointed a six-member committee. The committee had top police and district officials as its members. The committee took six months to decide about the project. The Home Minister, the Additional Chief Secretary, the Divisional Commissioner and the Police Commissioner were involved in this project. I was nowhere in the picture.” Pawar added, “Even the then Divisional Commissioner, Dilip Band, has told the media in Pune that Ajit Pawar was not involved in the case. He has said that it was entirely the decision of the home department.” Pawar said the IPS officer might have written about the deal to get publicity for the book. “I am told that some retired officers do such things to get publicity for their books. Also, I am told that before publishing the book, the retired IPS and IAS officers have to take permission from their departments.” Pawar added, "I want to once again like to emphasise that I have nothing to do with the project. I never put any pressure on former home minister R R Patil. I first became a minister 32 years back. Since then, I have never done anything which will cause loss to the state government. Even regarding transfers, I never issue any instructions to the top officials."
