Ex-IAS official to probe charges against Subhash Desai

Mumbai: The Maharashtra government, which is facing flak over the denotification of Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) land in Nashik, has appointed a committee under former IAS official K.P. Bakshi to probe allegations levelled against industries minister Subhash Desai.

The committee has been asked to probe the matter and also check cases of denotification of MIDC land in the last 15 years. However, Opposition party leader Dhananjay Munde said that an impartial inquiry wouldn’t be possible as long as the minister is in office.

Mr Bakshi had retired last year as the additional chief secretary of the home department.

In Mr Desai’s case, almost 12,000 hectares of MIDC land all over the state were denotified.

Mr Munde, a Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and Opposition leader in the Legislative Council, had termed it the “biggest-ever” land scam in the state, and claimed it was worth around Rs 60,000 crore.

Replying to the allegations, Mr Desai said that the former industries ministers Rajendra Darda and Narayan Rane, both Congress leaders, had denotified the land.

Mr Desai later offered his resignation to chief minister Devendra Fadnavis who refused it. Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray also stood by Mr Desai in the matter.

A government notification in this regard said that chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had assured the Assembly of an inquiry into the matter in the wake of uproar over the denotification.

“The committee will check if the denotification decision was taken as per the rules of the industries department, if there was any conflict of interest in denotifying the land and if there was any lacunae in the process of denotification,” the government notification said.

However, the committee has not given any time frame to inquire and submit a report.

Reacting to the appointment of the one-man committee, Mr Munde said that the minister should resign for the inquiry to be impartial.

“Officials from the industries department will have to make papers and witnesses available for the inquiry. The minister heads the department and the officials under him cannot speak against him. About the probe into denotification of lands in the last 15 years… what about the denotification of lands during Desai’s tenure?  It is just misleading,” he said.

Land denotification row

w In Subhash Desai's case, almost 12,000 hectare of MIDC land all over the state was denotified. Opposition leader in the Legislative Council Dhananjay Munde of the Nationalist Congress Party had called it the “biggest ever” land scam in the state, worth around Rs 60,000 crore. Replying to the allegations, Mr Desai said that the former industries ministers and Congress leaders Rajendra Darda and Narayan Rane, had denotified the lands. Mr Desai later offered his resignation to chief minister Devendra Fadnavis who has refused to accept it. Uddhav Thackeray has also backed Mr Desai.