Union Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh on Tuesday appeared to be laying the blame for the Adarsh scam at former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan's door when he told the judicial panel probing it that the land was allotted to the society after a go-ahead from the revenue department.
The inquiry commission probing the Adarsh Housing Society scam has issued summons to former Maharashtra chief ministers Vilasrao Deshmukh and Ashok Chavan to appear before it as witnesses. The two-member commission, which summoned Union Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde last week, issued summons to Deshmukh, presently Union minister for rural development, and Chavan.Chavan had to step down as the state chief minister last year following the Adarsh controversy.
The government has revised the wages for unskilled manual workers under the national rural employment guarantee scheme by indexing it to inflation, Rural Development Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said.
Union Science and Technology Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh on Thursday declined to comment on the latest CAG report which is said to have indicted him over a land allotment in Mumbai.
The Supreme Court on Friday refused to stay a Bombay high court judgment making remarks against former Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh in a case involving allotment of 20 acre land to filmmaker Subhash Ghai's institute. The apex court, however, said it will hear in detail the petition filed by Deshmukh, now a Union minister, seeking expunging of remarks made by the high court in its February 9 judgment.
Following a meeting of Congress Parliamentary Party, where some members felt that leaders from Maharashtra should be roped in to talk to the 74-year-old Gandhian, Deshmukh drove to Ramlila Maidan to meet Hazare but maintained that it was "in his personal capacity."
Thousands of people lined up on the road to pay their last respects to Union Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh whose body arrived in Latur on Wednesday morning.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday pulled up former Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh for preventing police from registering a criminal case against a Congress legislator's moneylender father and imposed a staggering Rs 10 lakh fine on the state government.
The five-member Group of Ministers (GoM) also include Agriculture Minister Sharad Paward, Heavy Industries Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, Petroleum Minister Murli Deora and Chemical and Fertiliser Minister M K Azhagiri, official sources said.
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."
The Congress Working Committee meeting witnessed Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar being targetted by senior Congress leaders on the issue of spiraling price rise. The three leaders who attacked Sharad Pawar but did not name him were former maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, All India Congress Committee general secretaries R K Dhawan and Satyavrat Chaturvedi.
The Bombay High Court on Wednesday directed the Central Bureau of Investigation, the investigating agency in Adarsh Housing Society scam, to look into the allegations of involvement of Union ministers Vilasrao Deshmukh and Sushil Kumar Shinde, and submit a progress report by next week.
If the country wants to have eco-friendly vehicle, definitely some concessions have to be offered.
Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh was on Wednesday pulled up by the Supreme Court for giving 20 acres of land to film producer Subhash Ghai in 2004 for his film institute, saying he cannot treat anyone as a "blue-eyed boy" and bend or bypass rules.
In a setback to film producer Subhash Ghai, the Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the Bombay high court order quashing the 20 acre land allotted to his film institute in Mumbai. A bench of justices H L Dattu and C K Prasad also pulled up former Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh for allotting the land in 2004, saying the CM cannot bend or bypass rules to give away government land.
Denying the charge of backing rebel of Congress leader Sunil Deshmukh against the candidature of President Pratibha Patil's son Raosaheb Shekhawat from Amravati in Maharashtra assembly polls, Union Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said on Tuesday that party workers should learn to accept the party's decision.
Union Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh on Monday visited Anna Hazare, who ended his 13-day fast for an effective Lokpal Bill, at a private hospital in neighbouring Gurgaon.
Keeping up the trend of power legacy in Indian politics, at least 20 candidates contesting in the forthcoming Maharashtra assembly elections are sons and daughters of prominent political leaders.
Union ministers Vilasrao Deshmukh and Sushil Kumar Shinde's son and daughter respectively figure in the third list of Congress candidates for the Maharashtra assembly polls.While Deshmukh's son Amit will contest from Latur city constituency, Shinde's daughter Praniti will fight from Solapur city central. The third list was announced by the All India Congress Committee on Thursday night. Rajendra Shekhawat, son of President Pratibha Patil, has already been nominated.
Immediately after Parliament agreed to Anna Hazare's three key demands on Lokpal Bill, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday sent him a letter conveying the same and urged the Gandhian to give up his 12-day fast. "As you know, Parliament today discussed Lokpal related issues. You will be happy to know that both Houses of Parliament have passed a resolution on the three points raised by you," Dr Singh said in the letter which was handed over to Hazare.
Maharashtra Congress leaders on Tuesday met at Defence Minister AK Antony's residence to discuss seat-sharing formula for the October's assembly elections. Maharashtra's Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, former chief minister Narayan Rane, Union Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and Mumbai Congress chief Kripa Shankar Singh attended the meeting.
Union Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, who is against an alliance with the Nationalist Congress Party, was made chairman of the Congress election management committee on Friday, possibly raising questions over the tie-up in the Assembly polls in Maharashtra.
Deshmukh said there is a law making it compulsory to have signboards in Marathi along with other languages and give priority to locals. However, these laws were not implemented properly, he added.
Union Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh on Thursday dismissed the Opposition's demand for his resignation in the wake of the Supreme Court rebuking him for abusing his position as Maharashtra chief minister. "These are political things. I cannot expect anything positive from my opponents", Deshmukh said when asked about the demand from the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Shiv Sena that he quit in the wake of the court's observations against him.
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.
Union Heavy Industries Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh on Saturday asked people not to attach much importance to what the Thackerays say and accused the family members of fighting among themselves to strengthen their political base in Maharashtra. "Don't attach much importance to what they say. It is their family problem, to strengthen their (respective) political base," the former Maharashtra chief minister said.
The couple celebrated the big day with friends in the film industry.
Congress sources in New Delhi say the race is narrowing down between Deshmukh and Chavan with latter having an edge.
The Congress is acting against its own candidate in Amravati and President's son Raosaheb Shekhawat, Bharatiya Janata Party general secretary Gopinath Munde said on Monday.
Maharashtra Industries Minister Ashok Chavan will be the next chief minister of the state.The decision comes after long deliberations by the Congress high command, which on Wednesday had asked Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh to resign, following the terror attack in Mumbai last week. Chavan has been nominated the leader of the state Congress Legislature Party by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters on Friday.
Faced with in-house demand for change of leadership, Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh on Monday said he will expand his cabinet soon.
Concerned over the downturn in the automobile industry, Heavy Industries Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh has asked the Finance Minister to cut excise duty on big passenger cars by more than half to 8 per cent.
At the peak of the slowdown in December 2008, the government had announced a 4 per cent across the board cut in CENVAT that helped in reducing prices and spurred demand. Besides, the states were encouraged to buy more buses for urban transport under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission to give a fillip to the battered commercial vehicles segment.
Six persons were arrested in connection with the clashes between two groups of Congress workers during the rally of United Progressive Alliance chairperson and Congress president Sonia Gandhi in suburban Goregaon, Mumbai, on Thursday evening.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh touted Maharashtra as India's best foreign investment destination before a 200-odd people consisting mainly of prospective American investors at the prestigious Metropolitan Club in Manhattan on Monday.
Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh has filed a civil case of defamation against Bharatiya Janata Party leader Nitin Gadkari over latter's corruption charges in the Sion-Panvel Highway Expansion project.
Union Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, former chief minister of the state, had a meeting with Gandhi on the issue. Chief Minister Ashok Chavan also arrived in New Delhi in the evening for talks with central leaders.
Union Heavy Industries Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh on Friday said that he is not a contender for the chief minister's post in Maharashtra. Speaking to reporters after his meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi, Deshmukh said he would leave the decision to the party high command. Deshmukh, who has headed the state government twice earlier, is claiming the support of fifty Members of Legislative Assembly.
The budget presented by the Maharashtra Finance Minister Jayant Patil on Wednesday evoked mixed response with the Congress describing it as a progressive and development oriented while the opposition terming it as a budget devoid of any merit. Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh described the budget as a progressive one which would greatly help common man and farmers as it has given special emphasis on agriculture -- irrigation, water conservation and housing.
It was a huge earthquake which put this nondescript town in Marathwada region on the news map. Sixteen years later, Latur is again in the news as it will decide the political fortune of Amit Deshmukh, son of Union Heavy Industries Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, in the October 13 Maharashtra assembly elections. Amit, Congress candidate from Latur (urban) constituency, is locked in a quadrangular contest.
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