Adarsh scam: First head rolls,babu resigns

“The Governor has accepted Lalla’s resignation,” a Raj Bhavan spokesperson said.

Lalla,who was secretary in the chief minister’s office when the housing society’s file was being processed in the state secretariat,is the first bureaucrat to resign for his alleged involvement in the Adarsh scam.

Ashok Chavan was forced to quit as chief minister last year after it was revealed his kin including his late mother-in-law,owned flats in the Adarsh society.

To reports that the state government had asked former bureaucrats Ramanand Tiwari and Lalla to step down over their alleged involvement in the housing scam,Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan had declined to comment.

“The chief secretary was asked to meet the two officers to elicit certain information (on Adarsh scam). I will not comment further,” Chavan had said last week.

Former Urban Development Secretary Ramanand Tiwari is now the state information commissioner.

Lalla,in his resignation letter,said he had resigned to maintain the dignity of the Maharashtra State Human Rights Commission.

He said the resignation is voluntarily to avoid further embarrassment for the government or for himself and there was no feeling of guilt or wrongdoing associated with the decision.

He said his name had been “unfortunately” and “unfairly” linked to the Adarsh scam.

He maintained that he had no role in the purchase of flats in the society.

Lalla said the membership of his relatives in the society was much prior to his stint in the secretariat (Mantralaya) in 2000.” He said: “My father late Shaligram Lalla,who worked in the Military Engineering Services,retired in Kamptee Cantonment in Nagpur district and continued to stay there during his post-retirement period. R C Thakur,the chief promoter of Adarsh Co-Operative Housing Society,was my father’s neighbour. Because of the good social relationship between them,my father was taken as a member of the Adarsh Co-Operative Housing Society which was originally meant for defence and defence allied personnel and their families,” he said.

“After my father’s death,the membership was given to my mother Sushila Shaligram. My daughter was inducted as a member as there were vacancies available at the time when the society was being formed. My mother has been a member of this society since July 1998 and my daughter since April 1999.”

“I was posted in Mantralaya for the first time in mid-2000 as a secretary to the Social Justice Department and to the chief minister’s office much later in 2004,” Lalla said.

Meanwhile,Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan met the Governor at Raj Bhavan here this afternoon.

What transpired during the meeting was not immediately known,but Raj Bhavan sources said the Adarsh issue might have been discussed.

Meanwhile,leader of the Shiv Sena in the Maharashtra Assembly Subhash Desai said Ramanand Tiwari should also step down,over his alleged involvement in the housing scam.