Civilians dominated Adarsh membership

Of the 20 approved members who got the allotment letter for flats in the controversial Adarsh CHS, only seven were defence personnel while the remaining were civilians, accepted Kanhaiyalal Gidwani, one of the chief promoters of Adarsh CHS, to the two-member commission set up to probe the Adarsh scam.

Interestingly, out of the 13 civilian members, three are members of Gidwani’s family, including Gidwani himself and his two sons, Kailash and Amit. Gidwani also accepted that he knew eight out of the remaining 10 civilians.

“It is true that at the time of making allotment of the land to Adarsh CHS in July 9, 2004, the government had a list of 71 proposed members. The allotment letter contains a list of 20 approved members,” said Gidwani.

The society, which was meant to be a co-operative housing society for defence personnel who had dedicated their lives to the service of the motherland, had a majority of civilians in its first approved list.

Earlier, Gidwani had informed the commission that a meeting was scheduled on April 4, 2003, under the chairmanship of minister of state of urban development at his residence. At that time Sunil Tatkare was the minister of state for urban development.

Gidwani had initially denied that the meeting had been organised for the grant of additional FSI to Adarsh CHS. However, when informed that the same notice was given to the BEST general manager, Gidwani accepted that the meeting was held to discuss granting extra FSI for the adjoining plot.