Opposition Congress and Nationalist Congress Party, who are angry with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis for giving clean chits to his cabinet ministers facing graft allegations, plan to file public interest litigations (PIL) in the Bombay high court and keep their fight alive till the next assembly election slated for 2019. The cabinet ministers in the opposition’s radar are Jay Kumar Rawal (Tourism), Subhash Desai (Industries), Shivaji Patil Nilangekar (Labour) and Subhash Deshmukh (Cooperatives), Prakash Mehta (Housing), Girish Bapat (Food & Civil Supplies), Vishnu Savra (Tribal Development) and the minister of state for agriculture Sadabhau Khot. Incidentally, both the parties are in the midst of engaging a battery of lawyers to argue their petitions.
Former Chief Minister and Congress veteran Prithviraj Chavan told DNA,’’ Chief Minister is busy giving clean chits while corruption scandals are tumbling out. Congress party will initiate legal proceedings against the concerned ministers.’’
Former minister and NCP group leader in the state assembly Jayant Patil hit out against Fadnavis on clean chit spree saying that his party will fight it in the court of law.
For minister Jay Kumar Rawal, the Chief Minister said he had no links with a company called Toranmal Hill Resort. NCP had alleged that Rawal had grabbed the resort and the company had defaulted on lease payments and an eviction notice was sent to the company.
Minister Sambhaji Patil Nilangekar was facing allegations of loan defaults. Fadnavis however, said the minister was only a guarantor and the settlement was done as per RBI norms. Nilangekar did not take the loan himself.
Minister Subhash Desai, a Shiv Sena leader, was accused of denotifying 16,909 hectares belonging to the state-run Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation in Nashik’s Igatpuri to allegedly favour a private development.
However, Fadnavis gave the clean chit to Desai based on the report submitted a by a one member committee headed by former bureaucrat KP Bakshi.
