Chaos in Maharashtra house as govt rejects Adarsh scam report

The Maharashtra legislative assembly dissolved in chaos today, the last day of the winter session, as the Congress-led government rejected the report of a judicial commission looking into the Adarsh Housing Society housing scam, in which senior leaders of the ruling party have been implicated.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan had convened a meeting of the state cabinet in the morning to get the input of the ministers on tabling the report in the assembly. However, a consensus emerged that the report should not be tabled but should instead be rejected.

The opposition led by the Bharatiya Janata Party staged a walk-out from the assembly as the tabling of the Adarsh Commission report was not listed in the agenda for the day.

The BJP accused the Congress-NCP government of trying to protect its leaders, including former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, who is said to be named in the report.

Chavan was forced to step down as chief minister in 2010 after his name was connected with the scam, in which a small building in a plush south Mumbai locality was allocated to war widows and orphans, but was enlarged and diverted for the use of politicians, bureaucrats, and retired senior military officers.

Earlier this week, Maharashtra governor K Sankarnarayanan refused to grant permission to the Central Bureau of Investigation to prosecute Ashok Chavan. He was suspected for including a civilian quota for the Adarsh flats in exchange for apartments for his own family members in the complex.

Chavan's predecessors, the late Vilasrao Deshmukh and current union home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, have also been questioned by the judicial commission for clearing critical files linked to the housing society.