The Bharatiya Janata Party has demanded that a special sitting of the Maharashtra Legislature be convened to table the Adarsh commission report and the action taken report (ATR) by the state government.
“We want the state government to table the Adarsh Commission report and the action taken report before October 18 this year,” leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council Vinod Tawde said.
The two-member commission of high court Justice (retd) J.A. Patil and former chief secretary P. Subrahmanium was set up in January 2011 to probe the Adarsh scam with reference to specific issues, such as land ownership, reservation of the plot, town planning and coastal violations and the role of public servants. N.N. Kumbhar, secretary of the commission, submitted the 700-page report in a sealed cover to the chief
secretary of the home department on April 18, this year. “The commission report in the multi-crore Adarsh scam was handed over to the Maharashtra government on April 18. This report and the ATR report should be tabled in the state Legislature within a span of six months,” Mr Tawde said.
The BJP leader is also of the view that the state government cannot just hand over the report to the chairman of Legislative Council and the speaker of the Legislative Assembly and it should be tabled on the floor of both the Houses. On August 2, the last day of the Monsoon Session, chief minister Prithviraj Chavan had said in the Legislative Council that the report would not be tabled, as the government still needed time to prepare an ATR.
An interim report of the probe panel made public last year had indicated that the Adarsh land belonged to the state government’s revenue department. However, the defence ministry claimed that the land belonged to it. Union defence minister A.K. Antony had ordered investigations on both the land title and the role of the state officials.