"All land allotment matters pertaining to Mumbai city, Mumbai suburb and Pune city comes under the jurisdiction of the Chief Minister irrespective of the value of the land. All matters pertaining to land allotment in rest of Maharashtra is under the jurisdiction of the revenue minister," Chavan told the two-member inquiry commission probing the scam.
Chavan was state revenue minister from October 1999 to January 2003 when Deshmukh was Chief Minister.
Deshmukh, during his stint as Chief Minister had issued Letter of Intent (LOI) in favour of allotting land to the Adarsh society.
"In the revenue department, the file is processed by various officers like the under secretary, deputy secretary and principal secretary after which it is sent to the revenue minister along with a note from the principal secretary.
"Usually the revenue minister goes by the recommendation made by the principal secretary and forwards the file to the CM who takes final decision," Chavan said.
Noting that since he did not have to take the decision on allotting the land to the controversial society, Chavan said
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his department did not feel the need to bring to his notice that the land was in possession of the Local Military Authority.
In his deposition on Tuesday, Deshmukh had said he was not informed by the revenue department that the land where the building stands in upmarket Colaba was in possession of the Local Military Authority and a garden existed on the plot. More