By Ananya Mukherjee:
Many of Adarsh members paid 60 L for flats worth 8 cr today.
The land scam in Mumbai has shaken my belief in the Indian armed forces. If top generals can be involved in such shameful scams, we really have gone too low. My head hangs in shame and in despair.
Not only has a posse of influential politicians, powerful bureaucrats and retired chiefs appropriated prime land in the city to build the 31-storey Adarsh Housing Society, it has also doled out the flats at dirt-cheap rates. Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan’s role in Mumbai’s Adarsh Housing Cooperative Society has also been exposed. CNN-IBN has accessed a letter written by Adarsh Housing Cooperative Society to Chavan when he was the revenue minister in the state government. The letter shows that three of 104 allottees are Chavan’s relatives. The society also agreed to allocate 40 per cent of the flats to non-defence personnel.
Chavan also issued a clearance letter to Adarsh Housing Cooperative Society when he was Revenue Minister. The letter said that Adarsh Housing Cooperative Society should be cleared and flats in the society should be alloted in the open catagory.
This property is in the same line as Taj President at Cuffe Parade and opposite the Ambanis Seawind building where residential prices are in the range of over Rs 60,000 per square foot. “Naturally, an average two-to-three-bedroom-hall-kitchen (BHK) apartment could cost between Rs 6 crore and Rs 8.5 crore in this area“, said a leading real estate consultant.
“With government concessions, flats become very cheap and even those with low salaries can afford them“, said sources, adding that a government officer is entitled to a 450-square-foot flat if his monthly income is between Rs 8,500 and Rs 12,500, a 650 square-foot one if his salary is between Rs 12,500 and Rs 20,000 a month and a 1,706-squarefoot house if his earnings are over Rs. 20,000 a month. How were private individuals allowed to avail these huge concessions the sources added. The Ministry of Defence is now considering invoking the provisions of the Defence of India rules, but the Central Bureau of Investigation had already stepped in to probe the row over the allotment of land to Adarsh Cooperative Housing Society at the beginning of October.
It has now been noticed that anyone who could have objected to the complex has a house there. In the course of the entire cover-up to assist hassle-free construction of the complex, the army appears to have lied to the MoD which, in turn, misled Parliament.
The investigation is on, but somewhere this is the proof that our system is full of corruption and this time even the army is involved!