Politicians have benami flats in Adarsh: BJP MLA

Politicians from Congress- NCP alliance in Maharashtra have "benami" flats in controversial Adarsh housing society here, Devendra Fadnavis alleged.

Mumbai: Politicians from the ruling Congress- NCP alliance in Maharashtra have "benami" flats in the controversial Adarsh housing society here, BJP MLA Devendra Fadnavis alleged on Thursday.

Accusing the state government of dragging its feet over tabling the inquiry report in the state legislature, he said in the Legislative Assembly that those having benami flats included present and former ministers. There are records of cash payments transferred to the "dummy" owners, Fadnavis said, raising the issue through a point of propriety in the Lower House. The two-member commission of high court Justice (retd) J A Patil and former chief secretary P Subrahmanium was set up in January 2011 to probe the Adarsh scam with reference to specific issues, such as land ownership, reservation of the plot, town planning and coastal violations and the role of public servants. The report is expected to be tabled tomorrow, the last day of the monsoon session of the state legislature. On the eve of the session, Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan had hinted at the possibility of tabling the Adarsh panel report during the monsoon session. The BJP leader`s comments came amid reports that the judicial commission has spared three former chief ministers and found that rules were bent for allotting land and granting various concessions to Adarsh housing society in Colaba. It has been reported that the commission`s report does not fix direct responsibility on or pass adverse remarks against Ashok Chavan, Sushilkumar Shinde and late Vilasrao Deshmukh and instead pinned the responsibility on seven to eight retired or acting senior state officials for the lapses and for misleading the chief ministers. PTI