Sanjay Raut alleges Rs 50,000 crore land scam in Maha, seeks Eknath Shinde, Minister Shirsat's removal

Mumbai, Aug 19 Shiv Sena-UBT MP Sanjay Raut on Tuesday alleged that a land scam worth Rs 50,000 crore in Maharashtra's Raigad district was executed through "collusion" of the Revenue and Urban Development Departments, the City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) officials and the ministers.

In a letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, the Shiv Sena-UBT MP has sought the removal of Deputy Chief Minister and Urban Development Minister Eknath Shinde and Social Justice Minister Sanjay Shirsat, who is a former chairman of CIDCO, from the cabinet.

He has also sought an Enforcement Directorate (ED) probe into the matter.

Raut, in the letter, explained, "In Maharashtra, the Urban Development Department and CIDCO have been involved in a Rs 50,000 crore land scam, where Urban Development Minister Eknath Shinde and former CIDCO Chairman Shirsat have allegedly pocketed at least Rs 20,000 crore. It is openly claimed that Rs 10,000 crore of this amount was paid to the bosses in Delhi."

"A staggering 4,078 acres of forest land under government control was illegally transferred to the Biwalkar family. Under the 12.5 per cent of land allocation scheme, the Biwalkar family, ineligible for 30 years, was arbitrarily deemed eligible by the Urban Development Minister and CIDCO Chairman. To facilitate this transfer, Eknath Shinde appointed Sanjay Shirsat as CIDCO Chairman for a mere 25 days, during which the land allocation was hurriedly executed," he claimed.

Raut further claimed, "Even today, thousands of project-affected people in the region remain deprived of land under CIDCO's allocation scheme. CIDCO officials shamelessly claim there is no land available for poor and marginalised project-affected families. Yet, astonishingly, no such obstacles arose when allocating Rs 50,000 crore worth of land to the Biwalkar family alone. This family was not eligible for the land, yet the transaction was facilitated through a bribe of at least Rs 20,000 crore."

"Eknath Shinde, Shirsat, and the CIDCO officials involved in this scam must face severe punishment. I demand, on behalf of the project-affected people of Raigad district, that Shinde and Shirsat be sacked from the cabinet and that a case be registered regarding this Rs 50,000 crore land scam, with an investigation conducted by the Enforcement Directorate (ED)," he said.

Raut's move comes a day after the NCP(SP) legislator Rohit Pawar on Monday alleged that Minister Shirsat was involved in corruption worth Rs 5,000 crore, as during his tenure as the CIDCO Chairman, he gave 15 acres of land to the Bivalkar family in Navi Mumbai, betraying the local landowners.

He demanded Minister Shirsat's resignation and urged Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to form a special task force headed by a retired judge to probe this scam.

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