Revenue minister must resign: NCP

Mumbai: The NCP has demanded the resignation of revenue minister Chandrakant Patil alleging he has been involved in irregularities of two land deals in Pune district causing loss of crores of rupees to state ex-chequer.

State NCP chief Jayant Patil said that the minister used his quasi-judicial powers to illegally transfer a devasthan land in Haveli taluka without charging any “nazrana” (premium fee), which resulted in a loss of Rs 42 crore to the state government.

“The Mhasoba Devasthan land was handed over to Radhaswami Satsang, which asked the district collector to regularise the transfer deal and make the land non-agricultural. The revenue commissioner rejected the plea for non-payment of premium fee. When an appeal was made to the minister, he used his quasi-judicial powers and made the transaction without recovering the premium. The land was sold at Rs 84 crore and the state government faced a loss of Rs 42 crore for non-payment of premium fee,” said Mr Patil.

In the second case, the NCP leader accused Mr Patil of favouring a builder over a land at Balewadi.

However, Chandrakant Patil refuted the allegations saying as per the 1885 land records, the land was not mentioned as devasthan land and hence no premium fees was required to be paid.

In case of Balewadi land, there was no decision, but only the land evaluation officer was replaced, he said.