Narendra Modi government’s Fisheries Minister Purushottam Solanki is in the news yet again, in connection with the alleged Rs400 crore corruption scam in the fisheries contract awarded to private parties.
Justice JC Upadhyay of the Gujarat High Court has admitted a petition filed against the government decision to not prosecute the minister under corruption charges and fixed March 20 for the final hearing.
The petition was filed by one Ishaq Maradia through his counsel Mukul Sinha, in 2010. “The matter came up for hearing on Tuesday and the high court has admitted it for final hearing,” said advocate Sinha.
The matter went through many twist and turns since 2008 when Maradia filed a petition before the HC alleging corruption of crores of rupees by the minister in awarding contracts of water reservoirs at very low prices and in contravention of government policy. The HC had earlier cancelled the contracts issued by the minister and fresh contracts earned the government a hefty Rs600 crore.
“We have produced the figures how the government lost Rs600 to Rs650 crore in contracts awarded by Solanki in the past ten years,” said Sinha.
According to the case details, Solanki gave away fishing contracts for 58 reservoirs in the state, each spread over at least 200 hectares, at rates far below the upset price fixed in the previous contract. Bids worth Rs40 crore per annum were awarded for a pittance of Rs2.36 crore. This was done for not one but 10 years.
In September 2008, a petition was filed in the HC challenging the contracts by one Ishaq Maradia from Bhagal village in Palanpur. Maradia and other petitioners stated in their affidavits that Solanki demanded bribes from them for sums varying from Rs10 lakh to Rs30 lakh each. Bribes totalling Rs11 crore were received by Solanki from contractors, the petition alleges. Moreover, the set process of tendering was also violated.
In November 2008, a two-judge bench of Justice RM Doshit and Sharad Dave of the HC ruled that the contracts were wrongly awarded by the minister (Solanki) for “extraneous reasons” and ordered re-tendering for awarding the contracts.
Maradia then wrote a letter to the government demanding to prosecute Solanki for alleged corruption. However, when the government did not pay heed, they filed a petition before the HC. During the hearing, the government informed the court that they decided not to give permission to prosecute Solanki. Then Maradia filed a petition with all facts and figures of corruption allegedly committed by the minister and sought the HC’s intervention to prosecute him.
