The Congress-led government in Maharashtra took an aggressive stance to checkmate the opposition parties in the legislature by declaring an inquiry by the Mumbai Crime Branch for the leakage of Comptroller & Auditor General (CAG) report for the year ended March 31, 2011.
The announcement in this regard was made by home minister R R Patil amid slogan shouting by members of treasury and opposition benches.
Patil said the inquiry would be completed before the monsoon session when the report would be tabled in the legislature. He hoped that such an inquiry would prove a deterrent for leakage any crucial documents in fututure.
Patil at the outset said that the leakage of the CAG report, which is a constitutional body, was a serious matter and the government was in favour of holding a comprehensive report. It must mentioned here that BJP legislator Devendra Phadanvis had submitted a CD to the state assembly speaker a fortnight ago.
The report led to a political storm as ruling party members especially ministers, whose educational institutions had received government lands under the 1983 government policy, took serious objection against the leakage and the subsequent publicity given by press and media.
Some ministers also pressed the need for an outright rejection of the CAG report but it was not possible considering CAG's constitutional status. The embattled state government took the opinion of the advocate general who also opined that it was mandatory for the state government to table the report in the legislature and later it was discussed by the Public Accounts Committee.
The official report tabled by the state deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar had castigated the government for irregularities in the allotment of land and lack of moniroting mechansim for its suage. Contrary to the CD and published documents submitted by Phadanvis, the official CAG report did not mention the specific names of any minister or bureaucrats or legislators but refer to the various institutions who have received government lands.
Meanwhile, amid slogan shouting chief minister Prithviraj Chavan made an request to the presiding officer to give his directive for the Public Accounts Committee to immediately take up CAG report for scrutiny and made it recommendations. This was necessary for making the government's position quite clear, the chief minister noted.
Subsequently, the presiding officer Nawab Malik gave his ruling asking the Public Accounts Committee to take up the report at the earliest for its consideration. However, opposition parties strongly objected to the chief minister's proposal and also the directive given by the presiding officer.
Amid slogan shouting and disturbance, the presiding officer called business for the day and later adjourned the house for the day.