White Paper post-mortem — Govt smells leak

According to available information, the post-mortem report was prepared by Narayan Rane, Gopinath Munde, Leeladhar Dake, Mahadeorao Shivankar and Prakash Jawdekar, a couple of days back. The booklet which stated that it was printed at Mumbai, carried four cartoons, ridiculing the present government, and a poem, `exposing’ Vilasrao government, written by Sena activist, Dyanesh Wakudkar. It is widely believed that the rejoinder of the White Paper was published in a local press and not in Mumbai.

The comprehensive reply to the White Paper on the same day by the Opposition with fact and figures has also exposed some officers in the present government who had helped their previous Sena-BJP combine bosses.

The apologetic Finance Minister, Jayant Patil, however, felt that he did not mind even if it was leaked. "We don’t want to hide anything and people of the State are quite aware about the present state of financial affairs", he defended.

When it was pointed out whether the Government would maintain its casual approach on the annual budget report too and allow it to be leaked, he shot back, "No, not at all. We will treat it as a serious matter," he said.

"Now it would be easy for us to give point-by-point reply to them in the House during the discussion on the White Paper," Patil further said.

Meanwhile, a section of ruling coalition legislators demanded a high-level enquiry into the leak and punish the guilty officials.

The Congress legislator Satish Chaturvedi, wondered how a secret document of the government, which was yet to be tabled in the legislature, was leaked.