Adarsh never reserved for defence personnel, war heroes: Deshmukh

Union minister for rural development and former Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh today said the Adarsh Society land belonged to the state and was never reserved for defence personnel or Kargil war heroes.

Deshmukh, in an affidavit filed before the two-member Adarsh Commission, set up to probe the scam said, "The records maintained with the office of the collector of Mumbai clearly show that the land belonged to the state government. The ownership of the land was never an issue at any stage so far I am concerned."

He added further that there was no reservation on the Adarsh Society land for housing of defence personnel or Kargil war heroes either under the Development Plan for Greater Mumbai or under any policy of the state government.

Deshmukh's statement runs on lines similar to that of union power minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, who filed an affidavit in this regard last week.

Countering allegations leveled by activist Santosh Daundkar in an affidavit before the commission, Deshmukh denied that he had been regularly meeting one of the promoters of Adarsh Society, Kanaihyalal Gidwani.

In a 15-page affidavit Deshmukh said, "I deny that it was on the insistence of Gidwani that the revenue department was asked to put up the case of allotment of land to Adarsh.''