Rane defends land transfer to Lavasa

Maharashtra Industries Minister Narayan Rane defended on Friday regularisation of land allotted for Lavasa Hill City, saying it was done as per law.

Lawyer Y P Singh had claimed on Thursday some "conscientious officers" of the Revenue Department had objected to allocating government land to a private company. "However, the objections were suppressed. It has been reliably learnt that this was done by Narayan Rane, then Revenue Minister," he said.

Rane read out a October 2010 order of the department recommending action against an officer who approved the transfer of tribal land to Lavasa without seeking mandatory government sanction.

As per a report of senior bureaucrat Ramesh Kumar, there were irregularities in the transfer of tribal land to Lavasa. The same order suggested regularisation of the transfer after recovery of fine.

Recently, the state government fixed the fine at Rs 25 crore.

"I recommended disciplinary action against the officer because he granted approval instead of forwarding the proposal to the state government," said Rane.

He questioned why Singh, who represents petitioners in the court case, raised the sub-judice matter.

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