Aaditya Thackeray seeks probe into row over Eknath Shinde’s land allotment decision in MVA govt

PTI, Dec 20, 2022, 4:39 PM IST

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Nagpur: Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray on Tuesday demanded an inquiry into Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s decision of allotment of land meant for slum dwellers to private persons when he was a minister in the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi government. Talking to reporters in the state legislature complex here, Thackeray also claimed the ”unconstitutional” Maharashtra government was not willing to listen and discuss the important Karnataka-Maharashtra boundary dispute issue.

The Bombay High Court recently ordered status quo on a decision taken by Shinde when he was a minister in the previous Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA government of allotment of land meant for slum dwellers to private persons.

On December 14, the Nagpur bench of the HC was informed by amicus curie (appointed by court to assist) advocate Anand Parchure that Shinde during his tenure as the urban development minister in the previous Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA government had directed the Nagpur Improvement Trust (NIT) to give away land acquired for housing scheme for slum dwellers to 16 private persons.

Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said in the state Legislative Council on Tuesday that the government does not give costly plots at lower rates to anyone.

Aaditya Thackeray, however, demanded an inquiry into the matter.

He also claimed that while Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has an aggressive stand on the Karnataka-Maharashtra border issue, the Maharashtra CM and state ministers are scared to talk about it.

He said the opposition wanted to discuss the issue in the House, but the government was not listening.

Maharashtra wants to know what is the stand of the government on this issue, he said.

The long-pending border dispute between the two states flared up again on Monday when members of Opposition parties- Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), Congress, and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) – from Maharashtra were stopped from entering Karnataka by the police.

They were scheduled to attend a gathering organised by the pro-Marathi group Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES), an Opposition leader from Maharashtra’s Kolhapur district had said.