Adarsh: Panel raps casual govt depts

Day one of the proceedings before the two-member inquiry commission in the Adarsh scam started with officials of various departments of the state government.

Day one of the proceedings before the two-member inquiry commission in the Adarsh scam started with officials of various departments of the state government facing the music for not submitting their documents on time or without an index to their voluminous files.

Officials from the MMRDA,BMC,state government departments of environment,school education and sports,general administration,PWD,revenue and forests,urban development,home and public health submitted documents pertaining to the Adarsh Society in Colaba before the commission comprising retired Justice J A Patil and ex-Maharashtra Chief Secretary P Subramanian.

During the proceedings on Monday,all departments of the state government had submitted files running into several pages without an index. Irked at this,Justice Patil asked the official of the general administration department,Is there a rule like this no index for files in Mantralaya? To find a particular document we will have to run through 300 pages?

Tainted bureaucrat Ramanand Tiwari,who was present in the court hall during the proceedings at the Old Customs House Building,broke into a smile when the commission posed the question to the government official.

State government departments,including the Registrar of Co-operative Societies,the Collectors office and the Ministry of Defence sought more time to submit their documents before the commission. Observing that the approach of the officials seemed casual,Justice Patil said,How much time does it take to bring files. The state government officials should be responsible and not casual in their approach. They are forgetting that they are giving evidence to a court.

Senior counsel Dipan Merchant,representing the commission,said the Chief Secretary had written a letter to 27 departments of the government to submit all Adarsh-related documents before the commission of which seven were present on Monday.

The BMC submitted two sets of files regarding building and highrise proposals. The general administration department informed the commission that it had two files related to Adarsh and 10 files of complaints received against IAS officers who are members of the Adarsh Society.

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The court was scheduled to record the witness statements of the Chief Secretary,the Army,the MMRDA,Mumbais Municipal Commissioner,the environment department and the Collector of Mumbai City.

However,the commission,while taking all the files on their record,said they will not be recording any evidence on Monday. The proceedings will continue on Tuesday.