Journalism of Courage
Maharashtra governments summary rejection of the Adarsh report reeks of bad faith
After determined prodding by the Bombay high court,the Maharashtra government did table the Adarsh Commission report in the legislative assembly on Friday,the last day of the winter session only to summarily reject it. This is not surprising,given the formidable task the government would have had on its hands were the state cabinet to accept the two-member commissions report. The commission puts in the dock four former chief ministers,including now Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde,all belonging to the Congress,and two state cabinet ministers of the Congresss ally,the Nationalist Congress Party,besides several top bureaucrats.
Mumbais realty space has been witness to many irregularities be it Adarsh,buildings in the Campa Cola campus,land allotment to trusts run by politicians at dirt cheap rates,or the chief ministers discretion in allotting flats. Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan made a modest beginning in doing away with such discretionary powers by reworking the development control rules and making a variety of concessions available in a transparent manner to any builder upon payment of a premium. Earlier,the BMC had the discretion to allow such relaxations on a case-to-case basis. But the task is not even half complete. Land needs to be auctioned to realise the best value. The committees 670-page report which elaborates on the blatant violations by ministers and bureaucrats ends on a philosophical note. How much land does a man need,it asks. While not many are going to lose sleep over that question,the onerous task of making rules transparent and weeding out discretion should be keeping many awake.
