Lawmakers question Maharashtra Govt. over Adarsh Housing Scam report rejection

Opposition parties flayed the Government of Maharashtra on Saturday for rejecting the report of the Adarsh Housing Society Scam that indicted four former state chief ministers.

On Saturday, the Communist Party of India (CPI) accused the Congress Party of protecting corrupt people.

"The Congress Party wants to take credit for the passage of Lokpal Bill to fight corruption. They have honoured the corrupt within a week of the enactment of the Lokpal. The Congress government has protected those who should have been imprisoned," said CPI lawmaker Atul Anjan in New Delhi.

A section of media reported that government had rejected final report of the commission that probed the Adarsh housing society scam because it named senior Congress leaders such as former chief ministers Ashok Chavan, Vilasrao Deshmukh, Sushil Kumar Shinde, Shivajirao Nilangekar and some Nationalist Congress Party politicians.

The BJP termed the incident unfortunate.

"The government-appointed commission had indicted these people in the Adarsh (housing) scam. It is very unfortunate that the government protected them instead of prosecuting them. The Bharatiya Janata Party will fight against it," said BJP leader Balbir Punj.

Union Heavy Industry Minister Praful Patel played it down and said the issue should not be stretched further.

"The Maharashtra Cabinet has already given clean chit. So, I think let's not stretch things too far," he said.

The Adarsh Housing Society was built to house veterans and widows of the 1999 Kargil War, but a probe found politicians, ministers and bureaucrats had been granted apartments at subsidised rates, leading to the sacking of the former Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan.

Meanwhile, in a major relief for Chavan, Governor K Sankaranarayanan on December 18 refused to give permission to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to prosecute him in connection with the Adarsh Housing Society Scam. The governor has, however, not stated any reason for his decision so far.

In its 10,000-page chargesheet filed before the registrar of a sessions court in July 2012, the CBI had named Chavan and 12 others.