Nashik: Sanjay Raut Makes Serious Allegations Against CM Shinde, Demands Probe in Letter to PM Modi and State Home Minister

Shiv Sena Thackeray Group MP Sanjay Raut has alleged that the Chief Minister had distributed money in Nashik ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. Sanjay Raut has alleged that there was a scam of Rs 800 crore in the Nashik Municipal Corporation. Raut has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and State Home Minister Devendra Fadnavis, alleging that the Shinde government has committed a land acquisition scam worth Rs 800 crore in Nashik Municipal Corporation limits. Raut also demanded an SIT, ED, CBI, and ACB probe into the matter and strict legal action against all the culprits.

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What does the letter say?

"On the orders of the present Chief Minister and the then Urban Development Minister Eknath Shinde, several proposals for land acquisition were approved by the Nashik Municipal Corporation through private negotiations. In this, keeping in mind the financial interest of certain builders of Nashik city, a big scam was done by distributing Rs 700 crore as compensation for land to them. This is why the Chief Minister is backing the builders concerned by avoiding an inquiry into the matter. In the process of committing the scam, the then municipal commissioner formed a priority committee of officers of his own choice. The ruling office-bearers and officials of the municipal corporation have looted the corporation's coffers for the benefit of a particular builder by flouting all the rules and regulations in connivance. Builders have lost crores of rupees to the government by sinking stamp duty, and income tax in large quantities while taking financial advantage. Crores of rupees have been illegally paid for many places which are not required to be paid. Not only this, cash compensation has also been given to seats that are not reserved. The roads in the town planning scheme are owned by the municipal corporation. The municipal corporation itself bought the land in the possession of such a corporation and gave crores of rupees to the builder," Raut said in the letter. 

"According to the provisions of the Land Acquisition Act, the land acquisition officers of the collector's office, who do not have the legal authority to determine the valuation of the land without the competent authority of the stamp and valuation department of the government, i.e. without determining the value of the land, illegally paid the builders in cash. The land acquisition department of the collector's office has carried out a regular land acquisition process and about Rs 100 crore has been given to certain builders as mentioned above. For this, the then Urban Development Minister and the present Chief Minister had orders. Even in this case, the rules and regulations were not followed. In both these processes, a scam worth Rs 800 crore has taken place," Raut alleged.

"Interestingly, state minister Chhagan Bhujbal had written to Chief Minister Eknath Shinde a few days ago seeking a probe into the scam. No action seems to have been taken so far. In response to a question in the Assembly too, Chief Minister Shinde gave a clean chit to the case. However, from the physical evidence, it is clear that there has been a scam of Rs 800 crore in both the compensation paid to the builders by the municipality through private negotiations and the compensation paid by the BMC through regular land acquisition," Raut said in the letter.