Cabinet Welcomes Hazares Decision

The Maharashtra cabinet yesterday welcomed the decision taken by anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare to call off his fast at Ralegan Siddhi in Ahmednagar district on Monday, but there was no reaction to his latest salvo fired against state social welfare minister Babanrao Gholap.

Deputy chief minister Gopinath Munde, who presided over the weekly cabinet meeting in the absence of Chief Minister Manohar Joshi, declined to comment on the corruption charges levelled by Hazare against Gholap.+i do not know the details of the charges made by mr hazare and will comment on it only tomorrow+, mr munde reiterated to persistent questions after the press conference held in the aftermath of the cabinet meeting.

Mr munde briefly summarised the contents of the chief ministers letter to mr hazare, particularly the clean chit given to the latters hind swaraj trust which had apparently prompted stoppage of the fast. However, he parried queries on the charge levelled by shiv sena chief mr bal thackeray about the trust misappropriating rs 22 crore. The trust may have recieved funds from society at large, he said.

Enquiries into earlier corruption cases forwarded by the social worker would be completed within a month and chargesheets would be filed against the guilty, he assured. Mr munde said hazares complaints had been classifed region-wise and a verification committee had considered whether prima facie there were cases required to be probed. Pti cds anl ap trg 05202113 d