Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday refuted the Congress’s allegation that he was involved in an illegal land deal in Kharghar near Navi Mumbai, PTI reported. On Monday, the Congress alleged that 24 acres of government land in Navi Mumbai’s Raigad was sold to private builder Manish Bhatija for much less than its market value.
In response, Congress state chief Sanjay Nirupam alleged that Fadnavis had approved the Rs 3.6-crore deal as the builder is an associate of Bharatiya Janata Party MLC Prasad Lad. BJP leader Ram Kadam asked Leader of the Opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, who demanded Fadnavis’ resignation, and Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan to apologise for making “baseless allegations against the chief minister”.
In the Assembly, Fadnavis held the previous Congress-Nationalist Congress Party coalition government responsible for the irregularities. The Congress government had allotted 606 hectares of land to 627 farmers affected by the Koyna dam project, and two hundred sold it the same day, the chief minister alleged.
“During the earlier Congress-Nationalist Congress Party coalition government, the decision was taken to give additional district collector powers to allocate class-I agricultural land which can be sold to anybody,” Fadnavis said. The House was adjourned four times, before the day’s session ended.
The chief minister promised a judicial inquiry into how the 200 farmers had sold their land, and also the allegation levelled by the Congress.
An editorial in the Shiv Sena’s mouthpiece Saamana, however, demanded that Fadnavis either make a statement on his alleged involvement in the deal or reinstate former Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse, who resigned in June 2016 following allegations of his involvement in a land scam in Pune.
“Khadse was asked to resign following a land scam as Fandavis wanted to have clean and transparent governance,” the Shiv Sena said. “Now, Khadse will have to be inducted into the state cabinet or Fadnavis will have to come clean before the people of the state.”
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