Aurangabad, Dec 6:
Former Shiv Sena district chief Radhakrishna Gaikwad has made a sensational allegation party's former mayor Trymbak Tupe claiming that he has amassed more than Rs 250 crore while drafting the city development plan. He has also made this complaint to the Chief Minister and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray.
Gaikwad stated that the citizens (Aurangabadkar) are deeply saddened by the chaos in the development plan and he feared that it would affect the party's result in the forthcoming Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) elections. The city has pushed back in terms of development by 10 years due to irregularities in the development plan.
The internal clashes within the Sena camp have come to the foray with this complaint.
The notification regarding the plan was issued in February 2016. Prior to it, the resolution to publish the plan was illegally passed in the meeting. For six years, the city has been in a state of disarray due to the absence of the plan. Landowners are suffering losses, and unauthorised construction has become rampant. Tupe was guided by five corrupt officials from the Town Planning section in the plan. The office-bearers and officials together cancelled 361 reservations and 43 road proposals and inserted 79 new reservations in the plan. Gaikwad alleged that a monetary transaction of Rs 200 to 250 crore was made against the new insertion of reservations. When the matter was sub judice, the High Court cancelled the plan in August 2016. Now, it is pending in the Supreme Court. Former Mayor Tupe was the petitioner and Municipal Commissioner was the defendant. This is illegal to happen in one petition. Besides, the lawyer's fees and the trips to Mumbai and Delhi were paid from the AMC exchequer. Gaikwad has demanded a CID inquiry into all these irregularities.
Direct allegations against Tupe
Tupe went against the then commissioner in the Court. Instead of the civic officers, he represented himself and the lawyer's fee of Rs 1.5 crore was spent. Tupe acted as a puppet in the hands of influential (rich people) and indulge into the irregularity of de-reserving the land from the plan. The act has affected the party's image.
Tupe's response to the allegations
If I had got 200 to 250 crores, would I have stayed in the city? This is my question to the accused. The other thing is that all these uprisings are going on after I submitted a memorandum against the corrupt officials of the AMC Town Planning section. The resolutions passed in the GB regarding the development plan have were taken in presence of 115 corporators. Later on, two mayors succeded after my tenure (one of BJP and Shiv Sena each). The party superiors have been updated about the plan and developments related to it, said Tupe.