BMC commissioner said that the civic chief has no discretionary power to permit increase in the height of a building without referring it to High Rise Committee.
In what could spell trouble for Jairaj Phatak, an accused in Adarsh scam, BMC commissioner Subodh Kumar today told a judicial panel that the civic chief has no discretionary power to permit increase in the height of a building without referring it to High Rise Committee.
"The civic commissioner has to obtain the recommendation of the High Rise Committee before he takes any decision on whether to permit increase in the height of a building. The municipal commissioner does not have discretionary powers to not refer the matter to the committee," Kumar said while deposing before the two-member enquiry commission set up to probe the scam.
According to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation chief, if the municipal commissioner differs with the recommendation made by the High Rise Committee, then he has to record the reasons for the difference.
"In this case, the High Rise Committee had given Adarsh permission only to construct upto 27 floors. The construction of floors over and above 27 was allowed by the then municipal commissioner (Phatak)," Kumar said.
Phatak, a 1978 batch IAS officer of Maharashtra cadre, was the BMC commissioner and also chairing the High Rise Committee when Adarsh was allowed to increase the height. He has been named as an accused among 13 others including former Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan by CBI.
CBI has alleged in its FIR filed on January 29 that Phatak, during his tenure as BMC commissioner, had approved the height of the building to be increased from 97 metres to 107 metres and thus increasing the number of floors to 31.
Phatak was the head of the committee looking after high rise buildings in the city and CBI had alleged that he had not referred the matter to increase the height of Adarsh building to other committee members.
According to CBI, Phatak's son Kanishka was allotted a flat in the Adarsh building in upscale south Mumbai in return.
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