BJP accuses Ashok Chavan of dubious SRA deals

Former chief minister Ashok Chavan cleared land worth Rs50,000 crore for development for a pittance while heading a caretaker government, the BJP has alleged. The deals involved projects under the slum redevelopment authority (SRA) scheme and six developers benefited from Chavan’s largesse, it said.

“Six SRA projects spread over 235 lakh sqft in different parts of the city were cleared for Rs6,652 crore in a hurried manner by the government,’’ said BJP general secretary Kirit Somaiyya. “The market rates for the projects work out to Rs41,840 crore,” he added.

Promising to move the court over the issue, Somaiyya said the government cleared some projects on November 11, 2010. Ashok Chavan had already resigned by then and was heading a caretaker government. He produced over 1,000 pages of documents, which he claimed to have obtained from the urban development and housing department, to make his point.

“The government sold land to a little-known developer, who had a share capital of just Rs15 lakh. The firm benefited by Rs6,400 crore after being handed over 55 lakh square feet of landed property,” Somaiyya said.

When contacted, Chavan rubbished the charges. “This is a part of the ongoing campaign against me. Leader of the opposition Eknath Khadse had levelled similar charges against me on the floor of the state assembly. I had provided them a detailed reply,” he said.

He said the state could cancel the deals if it found them objectionable. Sources at Mantralaya said, “Chief minister Prithviraj Chavan has reviewed and stayed 100 housing projects cleared by his predecessor so far. Therefore, the BJP cannot accuse the government of lapses any longer.”

Somaiyya countered it, saying not a single project had been stayed by the new CM.