Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithiviraj Chavan
Five days after Rahul Gandhi publicly censured the Maharashtra government for rejecting a report on what's known as the Adarsh housing scam, the report has been "partly accepted," said chief minister Prithviraj Chavan. While bureaucrats faulted in the report will be penalized, the chief minister offered no action against indicted politicians.
The Adarsh Housing Society is a 31-story building in Colaba in South Mumbai whose apartments were intended for war veterans and widows, but were allegedly grabbed by politicians, defence officers and bureaucrats. The controversy has added to the perception of the Congress as a party riddled with corruption.
The report into the swindle, prepared by a retired judge, was rejected by the state government last month partly because it indicted four former chief ministers, all from the Congress. Among them is Sushil Kumar Shinde, who is now Union Home Minister.
Mr Chavan, who heads a coalition government between the Congress and Sharad Pawar's NCP, said today that Mr Shinde will not be investigated because he had been faulted for political patronage of the housing project; there was no suggestion of any criminality, he said.
Ashok Chavan, Congress leader and former chief minister, has been accused by the CBI, which is investigating the case, of facilitating permissions for the building in return for flats for his relatives. But the Governor of the state, K Sankaranarayanan, has already refused permission for his prosecution.
Last week, Mr Gandhi, who is Congress vice-president, said that he disagrees with the government's decision to reject the report, a stand that was later backed by his mother and party president Sonia Gandhi.
Mr Chavan said today that 25 apartment owners were ineligible and their flats will have to be returned. Among them is Devyani Khobragade, the Indian diplomat arrest in the US for alleged visa fraud has forged a diplomatic row between Washington and New Delhi. The cabinet has also accepted that another 22 flats were "benami" or allotted to proxy owners who will be investigated.