MUMBAI: Breaking his silence on former top cop Meeran Borwankar’s allegations in her book ‘Madam Commissioner,’ Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar on Monday said he did meet with Borwankar when he was the guardian minister of Pune, but did not pressurise her to hand over the Yerwada prison land to private developer once she resisted the idea.
He countered the charges saying allegation could be a tactic to boost sales of the book by Borwankar. “I wish to clarify that nowhere have I signed the paper and asked to hand over the Yerwada Prison land to a private developer. I had no connection at all. I am surprised why my name has been dragged into this old matter. This could be one of the tactics to increase the sale of the book,” Ajit Pawar said.
Borwankar has said in her book that Ajit Pawar wanted the prison land to be handed over to a business man, who was accused in the 2G scam case. Pawar noted that former divisional commissioner Dilip Band has clarified this issue.
“The state government had constituted a six-member committee that included Pune police commissioner, Pune municipal commissioner and Pune district collector and asked them to submit the report over development of three acres of Pune police land. After eight months, the report was submitted. It was decided to develop the land on Build Operate and Transfer (BoT) basis. But when the ED started action against the firm, this decision of developing Yerwada Prison land was put on the back burner,” he said.
He also said that no individual can take the decision of handing over the government land to any private person. “Such decisions are always taken in cabinet meetings. In this case, the home department had already taken the decision, but lower level things were not moving, so on someone’s request, I inquired about it and asked the reasons,” he said.