‘Orders passed during Vilasrao’s tenure’

State spokesman of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Madhav Bhandari, on Tuesday alleged that most of the orders related to the Urban Land Ceiling Act scam in Pune were passed during the tenure of former chief minister, Vilasrao Deshmukh, who was in charge of the urban development department.

Bhandari has filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in the Bombay high court, which on Monday observed that it was the biggest in the country and indicated it may transfer further probe to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Bhandari told mediapersons on Tuesday that when Deshmukh was chief minister, he kept the portfolio of the urban development department with him. There was hearing of these cases related to ULCA before him. However, Deshmukh did not take action regarding the ULCA scam.

Filed in 2005 the PIL contends that as many as 11,894 returns (statements of property extracts and details of persons having interest in the land) were filed under the Urban Land Ceiling Act (ULCA), 1976 in Pune between 1976 and 2005.

It alleges that bogus orders were passed under the Act to enable some to avoid surrendering excess land to the state.

The judges have directed the CBI (anti-corruption wing) officer-in-charge to be present in the court on February 10, the next date for the hearing.

The judges took note of a report by Sudhakar Joshi, a retired IAS officer appointed by the government to scrutinise 235 files through which the bogus orders were passed under the Act.