CAG indicts Chavan, Deshmukh for ‘lacunae in dealings’

Had the report been tabled soon after it was received by the CAG’s office, Deshmukh, then Chief Minister, would have had to resign, Rane had said.

Strictures against Chavan, termed as “merely technical in nature” by the new Chief Minister, are about renovation of the offices and residences of ministers.

Between 2002-03 to 2006-07, Rs 1.52 crore were spent on renovating offices and residences of Chavan, then Industry Minister, his deputy Rana Jagjitsingh Patil and department officials, using funds of Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC), CAG said.

“MIDC not only failed to obtain permission of the state government, but also fudged accounts and booked the expenditure under Maintenance and Repairs to Industrial Area,” the report pointed out.

The report was critical of land allotment to the Vilasrao Deshmukh Foundation (Mumbai), an educational trust, saying MIDC incurred a loss of Rs 1.19 crore in the process.

The industrial agency received an application from the Foundation in September 2001 for allotment of a 3.56-lakh sq mt plot in MIDC area in Latur (Deshmukh’s home district), the report said, adding the trust also demanded 20 to 25 acres for a playground in November 2005.

“The MIDC allotted plots of 1.20 lakh sq mts for a college and 80,000 sq mt for a playground and received premium of Rs 41.50 lakh (Rs 31.25 per sq mt and Rs 5 per sq mt for 80,000 sq mt). There was no record of the Foundation fulfilling the eligibility criteria, as laid down by MIDC. The area allotted was in excess and against the rates mentioned. As a result, MIDC incurred a loss of Rs 1.19 crore,” CAG noted.

On Kadam, the report said the price at which a plot was allotted to Pune-headquartered Bharati Vidyapeeth, a deemed University of which the minister is the Chancellor, was “just half the price fixed for such allotments”.

Directors of City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO), another state agency, allotted a 20,000-sq mt plot for a dental college to Bharati Vidyapeeth at Belapur in neighbouring Navi Mumbai.

The allotment at the rate of Rs 1,625 per sq mt was communicated in July 2005 to the institute and Rs 3.25 crore received in September 2005. But the price at which the plot was allotted was just half of the cost fixed for such allotments, the report said.

CIDCO should have made the land allotment to Bharati Vidyapeeth at the rate of Rs 3,250 instead of Rs 1,625. The government agency incurred a loss of Rs 1.63 crore in the land allotment, it said.