Vilasrao Deshmukh associates allotted flats at Adarsh?

Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilarao Deshmukh has hit the headlines for his alleged connection with the Adarsh housing scam.

NDTV news channel claims to have documents that show it was Deshmukh who used his discretionary power to sanction 2669 square metres of additional building rights to the 31-storeyed building.

The expansion plans, worth crores, included building of 32 more flats at Adarsh Housing Cooperative Society, said the channel.

Furthermore, the former CM sanctioned 700 square metres in the building to be used for commercial purposes.

Sources revealed Deshmukh?s associated were also allotted three flats in the building.

On Wednesday, the Indian Navy submitted its report to the defence ministry on the Adarsh housing scam concluding that the apartment block does pose a grave security threat to its installations.

The report has apparently found the 31-storey structure, initially planned to be a six-storey one, sitting uncomfortably close to a fuel dump, an arms and ammunition depot of the armed forces and a key naval base.

The navy has also cleared its stand on the questionable ownership of the land saying that it never owned the property.

The army had earlier shook its hands of the land, which Chief Minister Ashok Chavan?s government has been all along been claiming to have owned.

Also, according to reports, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe has given clearance to the navy, saying that the No-Objecting Certificate procured by the developers for the construction of the building was not issued by the defence body.

The defence ministry earlier had sought reports from the navy, army and the Defence Estates Agency on the controversial housing society after the names of a few defence personnel came up in the scam.

The residential building in Mumbai?s posh Colaba area was supposed to house widows and heroes of the 1999 Kargil war but turned into a luxury apartment block where most of the 103 flats went to top politicians, bureaucrats, federal ministers, two retired army chiefs and a former navy chief.