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Mumbai: Three weeks
after a fire gutted the Maharashtra seccretariat, the Democratic
Front government is preparing to face the opposition's ire over a
host of issues during the assembly's monsoon session starting
Monday.
The problems which the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)
coalition is grappling with are readymade and the aggressive
Opposition plans to embarrass the government over the issues.
The opposition is expected to rake up the issues of corruption
charges against Water Resources Minister Sunil Tatkare, a
confidant of Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, the Adarsh Housing
Society scam in which former chief minister Ashok Chavan has been
named an accused, and a police complaint against a top bureaucrat
and top realtor in a Rs.45,000-crore land scam.
The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Peasants &
Workers Party have already demanded a probe into Tatkare's wealth.
BJP leader Kirit Somaiya and Jayant Patil claim they have evidence
against the land deals and the 140 companies set up by Tatkare and
his family within a span of three years.
Somaiya has called on Governor K. Sankaranarayanan and officials
of the union finance ministry in New Delhi, demanding a probe into
these alleged acts of omission.
However, NCP chief and Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar has
dismissed the allegations against Tatkare.
On the Adarsh scam, after Ashok Chavan was named in the CBI
charge-sheet, the opposition has demanded charge-sheets against
two other former chief ministers - Vilasrao Desmukh and
Sushilkumar Shinde. Both are currently union ministers.
Chavan, who resigned as chief minister in 2010 after the scam was
revealed, has been booked with 12 others, including former
Congress legislator Kanhaiyalal Gidwani.
Adding fuel to scam probe was "routine" transfer of CBI Joint
Director Rishi Raj Singh, who was leading investigation, raising
eyebrows and a political storm.
Add to this, a Mumbai court ordered filing of a first information
report (FIR) against bureaucrat Thomas Benjamin and others for
their alleged involvement in a Rs.45,000 land scam at Powai's
Hiranandani Complex, owned by leading realtor Niranjan Hiranandani.
Following this, the Anti-Corruption Bureau lodged the FIR last
week and started a probe.
Also, nearly three months ago, when the governor raised the issue
of incomplete irrigation projects, the government was forced to
admit the shortcomings and bring out a white paper.
With Maharashtra facing deficient rainfall and grim water
situation, the government would need Rs.75,000 crore to complete
the pending projects.
The arrest of 26/11 conspirator Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal,
currently in the custody of Delhi Police.
The opposition has been demanding details of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba
(LeT) operative Jundal's exact role in the 2008 Mumbai terror
attacks since he is from from the town of Beed in the state's
backward Marathwada region, and role of similar groups or people
in such attacks.
The tougher questions would be on the disappearance of Bollywood
starlet Laila Khan with at least five of her family members for
over 18 months and her alleged links with the LeT.
While her stepfather and a suspected LeT operative Parvez Iqbal
Tak told the Jammu police that Laila and her family had been
murdered and buried in Mumbai, her father Nadir Shah Patel had
dismissed the claims.
Though the Mumbai police have no evidence to back Tak's claims
since the bodies are untraced, the case could raise serious
questions on he city's law and order problem.
(Quaid Najmi
can be contacted at q.najmi@ians.in)
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