Former chief minister Ashok Chavan on Monday said that as revenue minister in 2000, he only followed then chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh’s directives while processing the letter sent by Adarsh society seeking allotment of government land. He also claimed that he signed the letter of intent (LoI) given to Adarsh society “in good faith” believing that then principal secretary of revenue department D.K. Shankaran must have scrutinised it.
Appearing before the Adarsh inquiry commission, Mr Chavan said that he had forwarded a letter written by the society seeking government land because it was marked to him by Mr Deshmukh.
On June 2, 2000, the society had written a letter to the CM seeking government land and had agreed to accommodate 40 per cent civilians as its members. The letter was forwarded by then chief minister Deshmukh to then revenue minister Chavan with instructions to process it immediately.
“The letters marked by the CM always get the highest priority and in this case also the letter marked by the CM to me as the revenue minister states ‘Pl, process this and put up’ is an indication of the intention of the CM. Accordingly, I had marked this to the deputy secretary to put up immediately,” Mr Chavan said.
Mr Deshmukh in his statement given before the commission has said that he had forwarded the letter to Mr Chavan, who never got back to him on the issue.
However, Mr Chavan said that the said letter was processed in the revenue department for two years after which a conditional LoI was issued to the society.
When asked why he approved the decision to grant LoI to the society, Mr Chavan said, “Since it was a mere LoI that too positively recommended by the principal secretary, I signed in good faith.”