Mumbai Union Minister of Science and Technology and Earth Sciences Vilasrao Deshmukh leaves after being questioned by Adarsh Commission in Mumbai on Tuesday. (PTI file photo)
A day after former Maharashtra Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde deposed before the judicial commission probing the multi-crore Adarsh scam, another former CM Vilasrao Deshmukh, who took the hot seat on Tuesday, continued with the blame game.
While Shinde had put the blame on Deshmukh, the latter passed the buck to Ashok Chavan, who was the Revenue Minister in his Cabinet. Deshmukh informed the commission that land was allotted to Adarsh housing society after the revenue department, headed by Chavan, cleared the proposal.
“The files that are presented to the CM office are first scrutinised by the secretaries. The Principal Secretary to the CM scrutinises allotment of government land.
The CM just goes through the opinions of the secretaries in the form of file noting and if there is no difference of opinion among them the file is approved,” said Deshmukh, who is the Union Minister of Science and Technology.
Deshmukh said that he had first come across the Adarsh issue in 2000 when he received a letter from the society seeking allotment of land. It has been contended before the judicial commission that Deshmukh, who served two terms as the CM from 1999 to 2003 and 2004 to 2008, had issued the Letter of Intent (LoI) to Adarsh society for allotment of land followed by notification reducing the width of adjoining road to facilitate the construction of tower.
He said he was not aware that the land belonged to Defence and also denied knowledge of existence of gardens prior to the tower being built on them.
The minister would continue with his deposition on Wednesday while Chavan would appear before the commission on June 30.