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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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."
Shinde was the chief minister of Maharashtra from 2001 to 2003 when he cleared many files including allotment of land to Adarsh.
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.
The Central Bureau of Investigation has claimed to have found incriminating documents pertaining to the Adarsh Housing Society from the premises of senior Indian Administrative Service officer and former Mumbai civic chief Jairaj Phatak.
Reacting to the Environment Ministry's decision to demolish the 31-storey Adarsh Housing Society in Mumbai, the society's counsel, Satish Maneshinde on Sunday said that the tenor of the order is completely malafide.
The Army said on Wednesday that it is carrying out an inquiry into Mumbai's Adarsh Co-operative Housing Society row in which a high-rise building has been constructed in alleged violation of rules with beneficiaries being former services chiefs, politicians and bureaucrats.
The Indian Army on Saturday ordered a court of inquiry into the Adarsh Housing Society scam in Mumbai and the alleged role of senior serving and retired officers, including Major General R K Hooda, in it.
Mumbai collector Chandrashekar Oak on Saturdyu stated before the judicial panel probing the Adarsh Society scam that the land on which the building stands belonged to the Maharashtra government, and it is not a security threat to the nearby defence installations.
Contesting Environment Ministry's show-cause notice, Mumbai's scam-hit Adarsh Housing Society on Monday demanded an immediate end to proceedings against it, insisting that it had got all the required clearances and the contention otherwise was "misplaced and incorrect".
The controversial Adarsh Society in South Mumbai on Tuesday moved the Bombay high court seeking de-freezing of its two bank accounts.
Pinning the blame on former Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, suspended state information commissioner and Adarsh Housing Society scam accused Ramanand Tiwari has told the judicial panel probing the case that it was Deshmukh who had approved all proposals pertaining to the high rise in south Mumbai.
The Central Bureau of India on Thursday gave a clean chit to Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde in the Adarsh Housing Society scam.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, whose name has been linked to a property scam related to the Adarsh Society in Colaba, Mumbai, attempted to clarify his stand on Friday.
The state government told the Bombay High Court that it will set up a commission of inquiry to probe the Adarsh Society Housing scam in Mumbai.
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.
The Central Bureau of Investigation on Thursday did not name former Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan in the benami property related to purchase of flat in the Adarsh Housing Society in Mumbai.
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.
Former civic chief Jairaj Phatak and ex-state information commissioner Ramanand Tiwari, arrested in the Adarsh society scam, were on Thursday granted bail by a special Central Bureau of Investigation court in Mumbai as the agency failed to file the charge-sheet within the stipulated 60-day period. The duo, which had been in custody since their arrest on April 3, had filed their bail applications on Monday.
Lalla, who was secretary in the Chief Minister's Office when the Housing Society's file was being processed in the state secretariat, is the first bureaucrat to resign for his alleged involvement in the Adarsh scam.
In a relief to former Maharashtra chief minister Shivajirao Patil-Nilangekar, the Central Bureau of Investigation on Thursday gave him a clean chit in the Adarsh Housing Society scam.
The Central Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday gave a clean chit to Maharashtra's rural development minister Jayant Patil in the Adarsh Housing Society scam.
The Maharashtra government has reinstated senior bureaucrats Jairaj Phatak and Pradeep Vyas, who were suspended 2 years ago for their alleged role in the Adarsh housing scam.
The Central Bureau of Investigation is likely to seek a review of Maharashtra governor's order refusing to grant sanction for prosecution of former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan in the multi-crore Adarsh housing scam.
The Bombay high court on Thursday said it would hear the application filed by a social activist seeking to make Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde an accused in the Adarsh housing society scam after the Central Bureau of Investigation completes its probe into the alleged benami transactions.
Maharashtra's beleaguered Chief Minister Ashok Chavan on Saturday met Congress president Sonia Gandhi after his name cropped up in a controversy surrounding the Adarsh housing society in Mumbai. Earlier, Sonia met Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh, political secretary to the Congress president Ahmed Patel, All India Congress Committee general secretary Janardhan Dwivedi and Union minister Prithviraj Chavan over the issue.
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
The Bombay high court on Friday set aside the sanction granted to the Central Bureau of Investigation by Maharashtra Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao to prosecute senior Congress leader Ashok Chavan in the Adarsh housing society scam.
The special court in Mumbai on Thursday extended the Central Bureau of Investigation custody of former Principal Secretary of Maharashtra's Urban Development Department, Ramanand Tiwari, and former Mumbai municipal Commissioner Jairaj Phatak, till April 17 in the Adarsh Housing Society scam.
After quizzing two Union ministers in connection with the multi-crore Adarsh scam, the Central Bureau of Investigation has examined former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, as the agency prepares to wrap up its probe in the housing society case.
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