Oppn picks up the gauntlet, accepts CM's offer to probe Latur mill deal

Oppn picks up the gauntlet, accepts CM's offer to probe Latur mill deal
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

MARCH 30: The controversy over the sale of a co-operative spinning mill in Latur today took a new turn with opposition leader Narayan Rane accepting the Chief Minister's offer to head a panel to probe the deal.

Leader of the Opposition Nitin Gadkari created a furore yesterday by accusing Vilasrao Deshmukh of being the prime beneficiary in the transaction which allegedly undervalued the Jawahar Spinning Mills by several crores. The mill was sold for Rs 3.22 crore to a firm owned by one Balaji Salasar who, the Opposition alleged, was associated with the Chief Minister's brother, Dilip Deshmukh.

``I am ready to head the committee but the government should appoint it under the Commission of Inquiries Act and give me full powers to examine files and summon the officials for testifying,'' Rane said in a press conference after he raised the issue in the Assembly.

``I am convinced that the Chief Minister misused his position and powers to hand over the mill to a person closely associated with his brother,'' Rane said. He also presented an affidavit of one Santosh Bharadia who was ready to purchase the mill for Rs 6 crore.

The spinning mill was sold by mutual settlement after the State Government scrapped the tendering process which, the CM claimed, had anyway generated a poor response. The best offer that tenders, going into three rounds, fetched was Rs 3.97 crore and the CM had claimed that there were problems even with that proposal.

But the Opposition claimed that the actual cost of the mill was an estimated Rs 11.05 crore. The amount of Rs 3.22 crore was not even sufficient to meet the outstanding debts of the unit, Gadkari said.

Today in the Assembly, Deshmukh said he was ready to appoint a committee comprising opposition leaders Rane and Gadkari to probe the allegations which he described as baseless.

Giving details of the procedure adopted while selling the cooperative unit, he said he ordered a sale by mutual settlement after consulting officials. The Opposition had stated that the transaction could bring more funds than the sale through a tender.

In fact, a public interest litigation had been filed against the transaction but it was turned down by the court, the CM said. Since the Opposition does not have anything to say against the budget presented by the DF government, it was resorting to such issues, he said.

Detailing the allegations in connection with the sale of the spinning mill, Rane alleged that there was a clear nexus between the Deshmukh clan and the person who had bought the mill at a lower rate. ``A thorough inquiry was necessary when the allegations had been made against a person occupying office of the Chief Minister,'' he said.

Deshmukh's reply did not satisfy the opposition members who rushed to the well today, shouting slogans against the Chief Minister. Speaker Arun Gujarathi turned down Rane's request to speaking on the CM's reply. Later, the entire opposition staged a noisy walkout.