Mumbai:
The Maharashtra government has tabled the controversial report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in the Assembly. This comes more than ten days after the Bharatiya Janata Party leaked what it claimed was a copy of the actual report in which several ministers of the ruling Congress-NCP Government were implicated for grabbing land through trusts linked to them or their relatives. The leaked report indicted at least 10 senior state politicians, including serving ministers.
The most prominent face named in that leaked report is allegedly that of Union Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh. The report alleged that Mr Deshmukh, as Chief Minister of Maharashtra in 2005, allotted a massive plot of land in Mumbai to his family's trust - the Manjra Charitable Trust. The land worth 30 crores, which though was allotted for 1/5th of its real value for a dental college that never came up, led to the opposition alleging that the prime property was just meant to be grabbed.
Also facing the heat in the leaked report is NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal whose Public Works Department (PWD) is alleged to have allotted two multi-crore plots of land to the M.E.T. Institute in Mumbai. Mr Bhujbal's nephew, Sameer, is a trustee of the institution, thus raising serious questions about conflict of interest.
According to the BJP, Cabinet Minister Narayan Rane also finds a place in the leaked report. Mr Rane's trust apparently acquired land in the Konkan region for a community centre. What came up, instead, was a banquet hall that is rented out for two lakhs a day.
The concerned ministers, who allegedly figure in the leaked report, had said that they would respond only after the CAG report was tabled in the state assembly. They also added that most of the allotments were made in accordance with government policy.