Former IAS officer Subhash Lalla today resigned as a member of the Maharashtra State Human Rights Commission for his alleged role in the Adarsh housing scam.
Lalla became the first bureaucrat to give his resignation to Governor K Sankaranarayanan. A Raj Bhavan spokesperson said the Governor had accepted it. In his letter, Lalla said he had resigned to maintain the dignity of MSHRC.
However, the second most senior bureaucrat and incumbent information commissioner, Ramanand Tiwari, is yet to step down. Tiwari’s son has a flat in the Adarsh society that was meant for the widows of Kargil heroes.
The state government had issued notices to 21 bureaucrats for their alleged involvement in the Adarsh scam. Former chief minister Ashok Chavan’s name has also appeared as one of the accused.
Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan had earlier refused to comment on reports that the state government had asked Tiwari and Lalla to step down over their alleged involvement in the scam. “The chief secretary has been asked to meet the two officers to elicit certain information (on the Adarsh scam). I will not comment further,” Chavan had said last week.
Lalla said his decision to step down was voluntary and to avoid further embarrassment to the government or to himself and there was no feeling of guilt or wrongdoing associated with the decision. He said his name had been “unfortunately” and “unfairly” linked to the scam. He maintained that he had no role in the purchase of flats in the society.
The former bureaucrat claimed that his relatives were alloted flats in the society because his father was in the category of defence personnel and much before he joined the secretariat (Mantralaya) in 2000.
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A senior Congress minister, requesting anonymity, told Business Standard: “Lalla’s exit was a foregone conclusion. Both Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar had announced that bureaucrats would not be spared for their alleged involvement in the scam. The government had served notices to 21 bureaucrats under the civil service rules following reports that their sons and daughters have flats in the Adarsh society.”
Shiv Sena leader in the state assembly, Subhash Desai, has also demanded the resignation of Tiwari.
Earlier, the chief minister Prithviraj Chavan met the Governor at Raj Bhavan. However, details of the meeting were not known but Raj Bhavan sources said the Adarsh issue may have come up for discussion.