Maharashtra Cabinet rejects Adarsh Commission report

The Maharashtra cabinet today rejected the report of a judicial commission on the Adarsh housing scam.

The government was expected to table the Adarsh Commission report in the state assembly today.

Earlier, Maharashtra Governor K Shankaranarayanan had refused to give permission to the CBI to prosecute former Maharashtra chief minister and senior Congress leader Ashok Chavan.

The Adarsh Housing Society is a cooperative society in Mumbai. The origins of the scam go back to February 2002 when a request was made to the Chief Minister of Maharashtra to allot land in the heart of Mumbai for the construction of a housing complex for "the welfare of serving and retired personnel of the Defence Services".

Over a period of ten years, top politicians, bureaucrats and military officers proceeded to bend several rules and perpetrate various acts of omission and commission in order to have the building constructed and then get themselves allotted flats on this premier property at artificially lowered prices.

As the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India to the President of India in 2011 put it, "The episode of Adarsh Co-operative Housing Society reveals how a group of select officials, placed in key posts, could subvert rules and regulations in order to grab prime government land- a public property- for personal benefit."

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the Income Tax Department and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) are in the process of investigating allegations that three former chief ministers, Sushil Kumar Shinde, Vilasrao Deshmukh and Ashok Chavan of the state of Maharashtra were also involved in the scam.

The Adarsh society high-rise was constructed in the Colaba locality of Mumbai, which is considered a sensitive coastal area by the Indian Defence forces and houses various Indian Defense establishments. The society is also alleged to have violated the Indian environment ministry rules.

Several inquiries have been ordered by the army and the Government to probe into the irregularities.