IBN7 impact: Chavan's role in Adarsh Society scam

Mumbai: Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan's role in Mumbai's Adarsh Housing Cooperative Society has been exposed. CNN-IBN has accessed a letter written by Adarsh Housing Cooperative Society to Chavan when he was the revenue minister in the state government.

The letter shows three of 104 allottees are Chavan's relatives. The society also agreed to allocate 40 per cent of the flats to non-defence personnel.

Chavan also issued a clearance letter to Adarsh Housing Cooperative Society when he was revenue minister. The letter said that Adarsh Housing Cooperative Society should be cleared and flats in the society should be alloted in open catagory.

When confronted by the media in Mumbai, Chavan ducked the questions

"I will call you. Give me some time and then I will talk to you," said Chavan.

Meanwhile, the Indian Navy on Friday issued a clarification saying that "despite repeated intimations to various concerned departments of state government not to issue a NOC or occupation certificate, temporary or permanent, it has come to the notice of naval authority last Friday that the MMRDA has issued an occupation certificate to the Adarsh Society building".

"The Navy has again written to all the concerned department of the state government not to issue a NOC or an occupation certificate, temporary or permanent, to the Adarsh Society building," a statement by the Navy said.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is already investigating how the prime land in Mumbai which was marked for Kargil was widows and veterans was given to VIPs instead. The Union Environment Ministry has also raised a red flag saying they did not give the society any clearance.

The Environment Ministry said that the Adarsh Housing Cooperative Society did not have a clearance under the Coastal Regulation Zone, nor did get it a No Objection Certificate for the project.

Adarsh Housing Cooperative Society, however, has been claiming that it had all the necessary clearance citing an Environment Ministry letter to the Urban Development Department in 2003. But the Ministry has now said that the letter in question merely clarified some queries about the project but was in no way a clearance certificate.