Narayan Rane in land scam

MUMBAI:  After Ashok Chavan and Vilasrao Deshmukh, another former Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Narayan Rane, is now embroiled in a high profile land scam.

Pune-based RTI activist Ravindra Barhate has exposed how Rane during his tenure as revenue minister in the Shiv Sena-BJP Government in 1998 had returned prime plot of land in Pune to a person who had already received compensation from the government under Land Acquisition Act.   In 1998 revenue minister Rane in his position as a quasi-judicial authority had decided in favour of Datta Bahirat who had given his power of attorney to Rohan Builders. Bahirat through Rohan Builders had sought for returning his land that had been acquired by the government for housing flood-affected persons following the rupturing of Panshet dam at Pune in 1961.  Citing a 1994 High Court order, Rane gave back the unused 2.15 lakh sq feet of the 2.75 lakh sq feet to Bahirat on the repayment of `16 lakh to the government exchequer.

“There were several glaring anomalies in the order issued by Rane,” said Barhate.