Adarsh scam: Probe against Maharashtra Information Commissioner

The Adarsh Housing Society scam in Mumbai claimed its latest casualty in the form of Maharashtra State Information Commissioner Ramanand Tiwari, when the state government on Tuesday asked him not to attend office pending enquiry.

Chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, informing the decision after a state Cabinet meeting, said Tiwari has been asked not to attend office with immediate effect.

?For Tiwari to continue in office is not in the interest of the state. We have submitted enough grounds to take action against Tiwari, and the Governor will send the recommendation to the Supreme Court which will hold an inquiry and decide whether to suspend him or terminate his services,? Chavan said.

He added that since Tiwari and Lalla (a retired IAS officer) were appointed for political reasons, a specific procedure to act against them has to be followed.

Tiwari, who headed the state?s Urban Development Department when Adarsh Housing Society was given clearances, had been asked by the chief minister to quit, but he had refused.

Instead Tiwari had sent a leave application to Governor K Sankaranarayanan, who rejected it.

Action against Tiwari has been initiated under Section 17 of the RTI Act, which states that ?Governor may by order remove from office the State Information Commissioner if a State Information Commissioner has acquired such financial or other interest as is likely to affect prejudicially his function as the State Information Commissioner?.

Former bureaucrat Subhash Lalla, whose kin has a flat in the Society, submitted his resignation to Governor K Sankaranarayanan at Raj Bhavan on Jan 3.

Lalla was the secretary in the Chief Minister’s Office when the Housing Society’s file was being processed in the state secretariat.

Earlier this month, Chavan appointed a two-member committee to investigate the Adarsh scam.

The committee formed with retired Justice JC Patil and retired Chief Secretary P Subramaniam will submit its report within three months, after probing all aspects of the case.

Besides politicians and defence personnel, former bureaucrats are in the net of suspicion in the housing scam.

The Adarsh society flats were originally meant for war widows and their dependants but former defence officers and kin of powerful politicians and bureaucrats ended up getting membership.

Ashok Chavan was forced to quit as Chief Minister last year after it was revealed that his kin including late mother-in-law, owned flats in the Adarsh society.