The Environment and Forest Ministry on Monday told the Bombay high court that it is considering giving the controversial Adarsh Society a fresh hearing against the demolition order and will file an affidavit within two weeks.
A week after claiming that high ranking officials from the Ministry of Defence were targeting the Adarsh society as they were not granted membership, the society has now trained its gun on former army chief V K Singh, accusing him of being behind the "plot" to "settle scores with his predecessors".
Adarsh Society's members have approached the defence ministry and the Central Bureau of Investigation, seeking quashing of the FIR filed in the alleged multi-crore scam in the housing society, in the wake of a judicial probe of the Maharashtra government which had stated that the land belonged to the state and not the defence forces.
This is not the first time IFS officer Devyani Khobragade has found herself under the scanner, says Neeta Kolhatkar.
The Centre gave an assurance to the court that the building would not be demolished.
Members of the controversial Adarsh Housing Society on Monday approached the Bombay high court, challenging the cancellation of the Occupation Certificate and the cut in electricity and water supply. The Society's occupation certificate was cancelled by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority and its power and water supplies were cut by the civic body on November 3 after it was revealed that the building was constructed in alleged violation of civic rules.
Alleging that all government authorities were ganging up on Adarsh Housing Society, the society's counsel on Friday told the Bombay High Court that the Ministry of Environment and Forests had cleared various construction projects in the city without insisting for a clearance from the Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority.
'The BJP is solely responsible for changing the image of the state, which is now known for political switch overs, and decline in its culture'
The ruling Congress in Maharashtra has cut a sorry figure after its leader, former chief minister Ashok Chavan, has been chargesheeted in the Adarsh Housing Society scam.
The 31-storey Adrash Housing Society building should be demolished within three months, the Environment Ministry recommended on Sunday while holding that the scam-tainted project in Mumbai's upmarket Colaba was "unauthorised" and violated the spirit of coastal regulations.
The Bombay High Court asked the controversial Adarsh Housing Society to submit a list of its original members, as well as that of existing members.
Union Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh on Tuesday said action against Adarsh Housing Society in Mumbai for violation of green norms will be taken in the next two-three days.
Starting a blame game, Union Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said it was Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan as the then Revenue Minister who asked the controversial housing society involved in a scam in Mumbai to change the bye-laws to include civilians in it.
In an attempt to put forth their version, the Adarsh Housing Society, which has been embroiled in a scam over alleged irregularities, has launched a website giving out details of the society and how they procured permissions from the Maharashtra government.
The fate of Mumbai's scam-tainted Adarsh Housing Society, which is facing a threat of demolition for allegedly violating green norms, is expected to be decided by the environment ministry by the this week-end "The ministry is likely to announce its final decision on Adarsh by Friday," said an official source.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan has sought information on the row over the allotment of a prime plot of land to Adarsh co-operative housing society but it has now emerged that the members include his late mother-in-law Bhagwati Manoharlal Sharma. Chavan was unavailable for comment. The name of Sharma, who died in July, appears in the official list submitted by the society whose beneficiaries include former services chiefs, politicians and bureaucrats.
t also stayed the order for 12 weeks to enable Adarsh Housing Society to file an appeal in the Supreme Court.
Former Congress legislator Kanhaiyalal Gidwani, who was chargesheeted in the Adarsh Society scam, died in Mumbai on Tuesday following a brief illness.
The Bombay high court slammed the CBI for not initiating action against government officials involved in the Adarsh society land scam.
Chavan had to resign because the party will have to make serious efforts to correct the public perception about the party's soft attitude to corruption, a senior Congress leader told Rediff.com
Union Minister for Rural Development and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh on Friday said the land for the controversial Adarsh Society belonged to the state and was never reserved for defence personnel or Kargil war heroes. In an affidavit filed before the two-member Adarsh Commission, set up to probe irregularities in the scam-tainted Adarsh Society, Deshmukh said, "The records clearly show that the land belonged to the state government."
Acting on the Supreme Court's order, the Army has begun the process of taking over the possession of the scam-tainted Adarsh building at Colaba in South Mumbai.
Congress leader Manish Tewari has tendered an unconditional apology to Nitin Gadkari in connection with his charge against him in the Adarsh Housing scam following which BJP leader withdrew a defamation case against him.
Devyani Khobragade, the Indian diplomat who is at the centre of a diplomatic row with the United States, is one of the 25 allottees who have been found ineligible to own a flat in the controversial Adarsh Housing society by a judicial panel which probed the scam.
Nationalist Congress Party on Thursday said it would support Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan if he was planning to reconsider his decision to reject the report of the commission which probed Adarsh Society scam.
In a blow to former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, the Bombay high court on Wednesday dismissed his appeal
Contradicting Ashok Chavan, the promoter of scam-tainted Adarsh Society on Monday said the former Maharashtra chief minister himself had suggested increase in the number of civilians in the society, which was essentially meant for defence personnels.
Leader of Opposition Eknath Khadse on Thursday said that Adarsh Commission's report had not given a clean chit to former Maharashtra Chief Ministers in the scam.
A senior source in the Maharashtra government reveals that the unfolding investigation in the Adarsh society scam is the main reason for the recent face-off between Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress.
A senior source in the Maharashtra government reveals that the unfolding investigation in the Adarsh society scam is the main reason for the recent face-off between Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress.
The Central Bureau of India on Thursday gave a clean chit to Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde in the Adarsh Housing Society scam.
Even as the Central Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday filed its charge sheet in the Adarsh scam, the Bombay high court allowed ministry of defence to submit within two weeks its response to Maharashtra government's claim that the central agency had no jurisdiction to probe it.
Many government departments, including Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority, Revenue and Forest, Brihanmumbai Municipal Commission, Home, Environment Ministry, Public Works Department and Uran Land department, were issued summons directing them to produce before the commission, all documents pertaining to the scam-hit Adarsh Society on Monday. However, except BMC, all the departments sought one week's time to submit all the files along with an index.
Shinde was the chief minister of Maharashtra from 2001 to 2003 when he cleared many files including allotment of land to Adarsh.
Days after the special Central Bureau of Investigation court granted bail to seven accused in the Adarsh Society scam, two more accused have filed their bail applications.
Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, whose three relatives got flats in Adarsh, on Thursday claimed before the judicial commission probing the scam he came to know of their membership in the housing society only after the news of alleged irregularities was broken by the media.
After being rapped for 'sloppy investigations' in the Adarsh society scam case, the Central Bureau of Investigation finally seems to have got its act together. After several high profile arrests, the CBI joint director has now informed that the "Bombay high court is satisfied with the investigations so far."
Advising the members of the scam-tainted Adarsh society to realise their mistake and surrender the controversial building to the Ministry of Defence, the Bombay high court on Thursday said "the security of the nation is of utmost importance".
Former Army Chief Deepak Kapoor on Thursday told a judicial panel conducting inquiry into the Adarsh Society scam that he didn't think that the high-rise would be a security threat due to its proximity to a military station.
Seven accused in the Adarsh scam have moved the Bombay High Court stating the Enforcement Directorate's case against them for money laundering is not "sustainable" as provisions of anti-money laundering law were not in force at the time of commission of the alleged offence.
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