The land in suburb
Lohegaon area was allotted to Defense Personnel Housing Society, and was meant
for the soldiers and widows of the Kargil war. Enough favors were bestowed
right from lifting of reservation on the government land to selling it off at
extremely low confessional rates and as such it was clear of how government
officials benefited themselves for these favors.
In order to obtain the
government land to construct houses at subsidized rates, "Defense
Personnel Cooperative Housing Society" was formed. Several norms, rules
and laws were set aside in order to grant the government land to the Society.
Initially the Society had 148 members from the army and air force. However, the
file moved from one department to another for approval without any objections.
In these circumstances, the involvement of the government officials in the
Society was exposed. In order to accommodate such a vast number of officials in
the Society, permission was granted by the local civic administration to
construct huge buildings.
The whole process in the
issue began in year 1999. Since the army officers and soldiers found it
unaffordable to buy houses, they applied to the government to allot government
land at subsidized rates to construct houses under the proposed Society.
In year 2000, they added a
supplementary application stating that since they had actively participated in
the Kargil war, the state government should provide them land. A list of 190
army and air force officers and soldiers was attached with the application.
On Jan. 24, 2003, the
Society was granted recognition. The government took a decision to grant 20,000
square meters of land to the Society as appreciation for the sacrifices and
contributions of the defense personnel in the Kargil war. At that time the land
was reserved for public use. Therefore it was not possible to grant the
reserved land for residential purposes to the Society. But still it was
presumed that the reserved land could be allotted for residential purposes,
hence it was given to the Society on this condition. Within a span of 22 months
after the government approved the grant of land to the Society, the Urban
Development Department (UDD) issued an order lifting the reservation on the
public land and sanctioning the land to the Society.
At the time of evaluating
the cost of the land, there was no Government Resolution (GR) of applying the
Ready Recknor rule. Therefore the Town Planning department evaluated the cost
of the land to the Society. The department evaluated the cost of the land at
the rate of Rs. 2.8 million, while the actual cost was estimated to be more
than 20 million per hectare.
When the Society made the
application, the list consisted of 190 defense officers and soldiers, which was
later abridged to 148 members. The list was revised again and 52 more members
were added to the list making it to 200 which included 100 army officers and
soldiers and 100 civic officials including clerks.
As per the latest list,
the names of senior Indian Administrative Services (IAS) and Indian Police
Service (IPS) officers have been revealed which include the names of Vishwas
Pandhare, Superintendent of Police, Anti Corruption Bureau, Pune and Anant
Rokade, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Crime Branch Pune, State Town Planning
department chief Vilas Landge, Assistant Director, Town Planning, Prakash
Bongale, and some deputy registrars of cooperative societies.
But what came as a shock
was the name of Uttam Urankar, a steno in the Regional Transport Department,
and that of his boss Chandrakant Kharatmal. Urankar sources say already has a
flat worth Rs. 2o million in suburb Bibewadi and his allotment in the
controversial Society at Lohegaon has raised eyebrows. Sources told Arab News,
that Urankar has not been transferred from his post in Pune for the past 30
years, which is the reason of his accumulating such a huge wealth for buying
properties.
