CM keen on making Adarsh report public at the earliest

Chief minister Prithviraj Chavan said on Saturday that he was keen on making the Adarsh report public and that the report would be placed before the Cabinet soon after seeking legal opinion.

Chief minister Prithviraj Chavan said on Saturday that he was keen on making the Adarsh report public and that the report would be placed before the Cabinet soon after seeking legal opinion.

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"We will not wait for the monsoon session of the state legislature to table it. The 690-page report has already gone through many hands in the process of its compilation and has been handled by people right from composers to Mantralaya officials. It is better to make it public before it is leaked," Chavan told HT.

Chavan said he had already approached legal experts. "Based on their opinion, the proposal to make the report public will be moved before the Cabinet for final decision," he said.

According to sources in the Mantralaya, Congress leaders want the report to be made public at the earliest so that three of its party leaders, who have been named in the alleged scam, are cleared. "The onus is expected to be fixed more on the bureaucrats than political leaders. The commission, in its interim report, has already stated that the land, on which the building stands, belonged to the state government. Chavan would definitely want quick action on the findings as the Lok Sabha elections may take place well before the due date," the sources said.

The alleged scam involves key politicians including three former chief ministers and bureaucrats posted in the key departments that handled the Adarsh files between 2002 and 2010.

In its 2011 report, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India had said: "The episode of Adarsh Housing Society reveals how a group of select officials, placed in key posts, could subvert rules and regulations in order to grab prime government land for personal benefit."