CM threatens to sue Vikhe over graft claims

Mumbai: Senior Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil has alleged that the BMC commissioner and the chief minister’s office (CMO) are part of a scam worth Rs 1 lakh crore for making builder-friendly changes in the Develop-ment Control and Promotion Regulations (DCPR).

The Congress leader has also claimed that kickbacks of Rs 5,000 crore have been paid to the CMO and the total deal was worth Rs 10,000 crore.

Meanwhile, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has issued a statement and demanded an apology from the Congress leader over this issue or face a defamation suit in the court. Mr. Fadnavis questioned whether Mr Vikhe-Patil understood the deve-lopment plan. He said that Mr Vikhe-Patil should either prove his accusations or tender an unconditional apology. Mr Fadnavis also said that a defamation suit would be filed against Mr Vikhe-Patil if he did not do so.

Addressing a press conference at his official residence in south Mumbai, Mr Vikhe-Patil had said that if the government did not bring changes in the DCPR, he would file a PIL in the high court.

“I am giving time till January 15 to the CM to scrap the amendments failing which I will move the court with a PIL and also lodge a complaint against the builders with SEBI,” he said.

Mr Vikhe-Patil called it  the biggest scam and  enumerated the names of the builders who were going to get benefits of thousand crores from the alteration of the DCPR.

The Congress leader alleged that the CM’s claim of bringing 14 changes in the DCPR were completely false. He said that the 14 changes were very important and wide. In each change, minimum 100 reserve areas had been scrapped. 2,500 changes had been brought by November 14, which indicated that the Mumbai deal had been done by the CM and BMC commissioner.