The Adarsh housing society scam has hit the Congress severely, causing many casualties, including Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, in the ensuing media trial. A large number of politicians, bureaucrats and army officers are involved in this mega-scam that is now creating flutters all across the country. The gravity of the situation may be gauged from the fact that even as the CBI is carrying out investigations, the Indian Army is all set to begin its own probe into the controversial allotment of flats to its retired and serving officers. Nearly 40 top army officers are allegedly involved in this scam which saw the resignation of Maharashtra’s Chief Minister. The Army has sought legal opinion on setting up a Court of Inquiry (CoI) into the issue and will likely issue orders for the same soon. The Army has been considered to be above corruption in India, and we all believed that they are the only ones truly working for Indian welfare. However, this scam proves otherwise.
Many activists like Medha Patkar had been trying to uncover this scam for a long time. Patkar said that even Parliament was being misled by the State government. She wanted first information reports (FIRs) to be filed against all the offenders, including the promoters of the Society, under the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Environment Protection Act. On April 2, 2010 when the news of Adarsha Society, located in an area of about 3800 square meters in the posh Colaba’s Navy Nagar area of Mumbai, the entire nation was stunned to learn that a large number of Kargil war widows were deprived of flats in this housing society whereas top army officers grabbed their own share of flats.  This is a 31-storey building and nobody knows how the Indian Army gave the permission to build a housing society on this land. The allotment of flats to officials of the armed forces, as well as to kin of politicians created a furor after it came to light that the land on which the Society is built was originally meant for Kargil war widows. Set up supposedly with the aim of “accommodating and rewarding the heroes of the Kargil operation and those who had laid down their lives for the protection of the motherland,” if one looks at the initial list of society members of the Adarsh Co-operative Housing Society, it comprised 40 members and included mostly defence personnel. Now the list stands at 103, out of which only 37 members belong to the army and just three members have anything to do with the Kargil war. The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority has scrapped the occupation certificate in the wake of the controversy.
The Revenue Department of Maharashtra government had issued an order in 2003 under which the land was handed over (occupied by the army) to the housing society at a fixed government rate. However, it was not stated anywhere that the army occupied land has been handed over to the housing society. The Indian army also took no action in this regard because several army officials, including former army Chief Deepak Kapoor himself, is said to have flats in this society.
The Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan was forced to quit his post in November last year after it was revealed that his relatives, including his late mother-in-law owned flats in the Adarsh Society. Chavan’s kith and kin were, however, not the only beneficiaries of the allotment of flats in the Adarsh Co-operative Housing Society; three former Chief Ministers are also beneficiaries. These are: Vilasrao Deshmukh, Sushil Kumar Shinde and Narayan Rane. All of them at some point served as the sanctioning authority for the project. Some of them also are said to own flats under ‘benami’ names in Adarsh. Deshmukh reportedly owns three apartments, each one a 3 BHK of 1,076 sq ft carpet area on the 15th floor. The flats (1502, 1503 and 1504) are in the names of Uttam Ghakare, Kiran Bhadange and Amol Kharbari, real or fictitious individuals whose relationships with Deshmukh are not clear. Shinde is said to own a 3 BHK flat in the name of Major NW Khankhoje. Rane is also accused of owning two 3 BHK flats on the 17th floor in the names of Girish Pravinchandra Mehta and Rupali Harishchandra Raorane. Former Maharashtra Revenue Minister Shivajirao Patil Nilengakar allegedly owns two flats in the name of Dr Arun V Dawle and Sampat R Khidse (flat no 2602). The project had been approved by Chavan himself in 2002 when he was the Revenue Minister.
Deshmukh, as the then Chief Minister, had given the initial permissions for the construction of Adarsh Society, while Shinde, when he was the Chief Minister in 2004 gave the final sanction for the project. Other beneficiaries (allegedly) include: Jairaj Phatak, ex-Municipal Commissioner (flat in the name of his son Kanishka J Phatak) and Ramanand Tiwari, State Information Commissioner (in the name of his son, Onkar Tiwari). Maharashtra Governor K Shankaranarayanan suspended Tiwari who is a retired IAS officer and held the post of the State Urban Development Secretary when the controversial Adarsh Housing Society filed for increase in its FSI (floor space index) as well as change in nomenclature of the land - from defence to revenue land. All this was cleared by his department paving the way for the construction of the 31-storey tower.
Others having flats are: Suresh Prabhu of Shiv Sena (own name), Pradeep Vyas, ex-Collector, Mumbai (in the name of his wife and fellow IAS officer Seema Vyas), Jitender Awhad, NCP (own name) and Indris Kundan, ex-Collector, Mumbai (own name). The list is long. Others who got flats allotted are: Kanhaiyalal Gidwani, Congress (along with 2 sons, Kailash and Amit) Uttam Khobragade, BEST GM (in the name of daughter, Devyani, an Indian Foreign Service official) Babasaheb Kupekar, Congress (own name) DK Sankaran, Ex-Chief Secretary (in the name of daughter, Devyani) Shriniwas Patil, NCP (own name) CS Sangitrao, ex-Collector, Suburban (in the name of son), Ranjit Krishnarao Patil, Congress, SC Deshmukh, Collector, Pune (own name) Arun Pawar, ex-Income Tax Commissioner (own name) PV Deshmukh, Secretary, Urban Development (own name).
Shaken by the scam and its dimensions, the Maharashtra government has just appointed a two-member committee of former Bombay High Court Chief Justice JA Patil and former Chief Secretary of Maharashtra P Subramanian to probe the irregularities in the Adarsh housing society scam. This committee is expected to submit its report in three months. Within this time the committee is expected to check details such as whether the land was reserved for Kargil war martyrs, reservation of flats, widening of Prakash Pethe Road, reservation of the BEST (civic) plot, violation of Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) norms and the role of bureaucrats. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has claimed to have found evidence of alleged forgery and manipulation of documents on the part of some army officials and bureaucrats involved in the scam.
According to reports, some of the documents seized by the investigating agency were indicative of some forgery having allegedly been committed by a few defence officials in criminal conspiracy with bureaucrats of the Maharashtra Government and private individuals. The CBI had on the 15th of November 2010 registered a Preliminary Enquiry (PE) to probe the alleged role of former and serving Army officers, with the permission of Defence Minister A K Antony.
ORIGIN OF THE SCAM
It all started in 1999 when a large plot (over 6,000 sq.ft) in the military complex in Colaba was released for residential use and the very first proposal of the Adarsh Housing Society came up before the then Shiv Sena - BJP government. Narayan Rane was the Chief Minister at that time. A second application came up in 2000. A Congress Government was present in Maharashtra and Vilasrao Deshmukh was the Chief Minister. The allotment application was sought in the name of providing homes for Kargil war widows and veterans. Flats were allotted to politicians, bureaucrats and officers of the Army and the Navy. In September that year, the MMRDA had given the occupation certificate to Adarsh Housing Society. Ashok Chavan was heading the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), which is the official authority dealing with developments in the Colaba-Nariman Point area of the city.
The scam was extremely well planned resulting in the frequent addition of floors to the housing society. Originally the Adarsh building was to have 7 storeys but in 2005 (when Vilasrao Deshmukh was Chief Minister), massive changes were made and Adarsh was granted additional floor space index (this governs the height of a building) of an adjacent plot that had been reserved for a bus depot. Thus, the building could increase its height with more floors, the height increasing from less than 30mt to 104 mt.
It also had the tag of violation of environment rules. The Western Naval Command had objected to the construction of the Society as it also violates the stringent Mumbai Coastal Regulation Zone norms. The Union Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh formally set the ball rolling for the demolition of the entire 31-story scam-tainted Adarsh building in Coloba’s eco - sensitive zone on Friday November the 12th, 2010. Ramesh sent a show cause notice to the Adarsh Society and said “all options under the law are open except regularization of the structure.”
Ramesh said demolition of the tainted Colaba building was the best option but legal tangles will ensure the building doesn’t face government bulldozers in a hurry. He said the society building is to be demolished entirely, or that floors that are illegal can be razed. The third option is to take over the building for a public cause. The Ministry, in its 29 page order, concluded that the 31 storey structure built at Block 6, Backbay Reclamation Area in Mumbai’s upscale Colaba area, is ‘unauthorised’ and should be removed in its entirety and the area be restored to its original condition.
The Adarsh building flouted environmental laws. It was important for Adarsh Housing Society to get clearance from various official environmental authorities before even a brick was laid as the building lies in the Coastal Regulatory Zone (meaning all construction projects are regulated to prevent environmental damage). It was found that both the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests and the Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority were in the dark about who exactly gave clearance to the 31 storeyed building as only 6 storeys were considered legal.

Amlan Home Chowdhury