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Journalism of Courage
The Congress on Monday launched an attack on Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on issues ranging from corruption to inciting communal violence at Vishalgadh in Kolhapur district.
Leader of Opposition and senior Congress MLA Vijay Wadettiwar on Monday said the state government has agreed to pay Rs 400 crore to a real estate firm contracted under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, despite the housing department opposing the move.
“Chadha Developers and Promoters has been paid Rs 127 crore so far by the Maharashtra government though it is yet to hand over a single home to the scheme beneficiaries. The state government’s housing department has opposed this decision, which makes the whole deal suspicious. Today, I spoke with the CEO of MHADA (Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority), who informed me Chadha builder is set to receive Rs 50 crore at each stage of the project,” Wadettiwar said.
Wadettiwar further alleged the firm was not eligible to bid for works under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana and raised questions on how he was selected. Housing minister Atul Save could not be contacted. “The documents of the concerned case show that despite negative remarks from the department, the decision has been cleared by the CM office,” said Wadettiwar.
Earlier, Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole held a press conference where he displayed the speech of CM Shinde, dated June 20, 2024. “On this day, during the ceremony at Raigad, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde in his speech had mentiond that a ‘correct program’ for Vishalgadh will be carried out. On July 14, riots took place under the garb of removing encroachments. Despite locals warning about such an incident before, the administration did not act. Shouldn’t Shinde be considered guilty for this violence?” asked Patole.
