Maha: Dhule farmer died, but minister made profits

After Dhule farmer Dharma Patil, who had attempted suicide in Mantralaya last week, died on Sunday night, Tourism Minister Jaikumar Rawal went to meet his son Narendra and consoled him on Monday. What Rawal did not reveal was how he had benefitted by purchasing a land after the government issued land acquisition notification for a solar power plant at Sindkheda — the same project that Patil had claimed his land was acquired for at much lesser price.

The Maharashtra government issued the notification in 2009, declaring to acquire 600 acres of land to set up the solar power plant. As per the 7/12 land extract (a copy of which is with DNA), Rawal had bought 4.16 acres from a local farmer, Shankar Singh Girase, on May 20, 2012, for Rs 2.82 lakh. Rawal had assured the farmer that once he got his compensation from the government, he will give additional Rs 35 lakh to him. Rawal is yet to get his compensation.

“The minister will get more than Rs 3 crore as compensation for his 4.16 acres of land from the government, of which he will be paying Rs 35 lakh to Girase. Despite this, Rawal will have made Rs 2.6 crore as he paid just Rs 2.82 lakh to the farmer,” sources said. Rawal refused to speak to DNA when asked to comment.

Curiously enough, Girase claimed he had donated his land to Rawal so that he could fight on behalf of the project-affected persons. Patil, too, was a project-affected person.

“How did the ownership changed on the 7/12 land extract then? It is clear that the land acquisition is a big sham and Rawal stands to make huge profit. Clearly, government officials are part of this, too,” said Nawab Malik, the NCP spokesperson.