Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan on Wednesday announced a judicial probe into the Adarsh cooperative housing scandal, saying in the assembly that a retired Supreme Court or high court judge and a former chief secretary would comprise the two-member panel. Somewhat predictably, the opposition parties described Chavan's announcement as unsatisfactory and rushed into the well of the House shouting slogans against the government, accusing the Congress-NCP alliance of shielding the scam...
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Media ethics why we need both panic and a pinch of salt by Shoma Chaudhury
NIIRA RADIA — owner of PR company Vaishnavi Communications, among others — is not merely a fixer in the old sense of the word. She is a thermometer reading for a very ill society. In April this year, a clutch of mysterious documents had made their way to several media houses. At face value the documents seemed a synopsis of phone conversations between Niira — a powerful lobbyist for Mukesh...
More »Environment Ministry's show-cause to Adarsh
For “blatant” violation of coastal zone norms The controversial 31-storey Adarsh Housing Society in Mumbai is facing demolition, as the Union Environment Ministry issued a show-cause on Friday for “blatant” violation of coastal zone norms. The Society has two weeks to submit a written reply and a further week to meet Ministry officials and make its case. The notice asked the promoters to explain “why the unauthorised structure should not be removed forthwith.” “After...
More »'Kargil heroes' on Adarsh list turn out to be fake by Josy Joseph
The Adarsh housing scam, which has already cost Ashok Chavan his job as Maharashtra chief minister, is sinking to still more embarrassing depths as investigators comb carefully through the claims of its promoters, who invoked the names of Kargil heroes and war widows to extract clearances. Did any Kargil hero actually get a flat in Adarsh? In 2002, the society had listed two members — out of a total of 71...
More »CBI probing Adarsh members for six months
Ashok Chavan may have been forced to quit within weeks of his name being linked to the alleged shady dealings involving the Adarsh Housing Society but the CBI has been probing the members of the group for almost six months now, suspecting some of them to be proxy owners.The investigation was launched into the source of income of the defence officers and Central employees who own apartments in their name...
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