New Delhi, Oct 19 (ANI): Training his guns on RTI crusader Arvind Kejriwal over reports that Mumbai-based activist Anjali Damania bought farm land and then sold it after changing land use, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Balbir Punj on Friday said it is very sad that the so-called civil society activists are making wild allegations against those with established record of public service on the basis of information supplied by people who have a very dubious past.
Punj said 'Kejriwal virtually committed a hara-kiri when he decided to take on BJP President Nitin Gadkari on a totally fabricated case and that too on the basis of an inquiry which he claimed has been conducted by Damania over a period of a month'.
"And all that he could produce as an evidence of Nitin Gadkari's involvement in various businesses was a calendar, which Gadkari himself has got published and has distributed.......... In fact the so-called expose day before yesterday has exposed Arvind Kejriwal and he appears to be a man with a feat of clay and he has not been able to prove anything," said Punj.
"And his star investigator, his prime witness Damania she herself is an accused person because she has bought 30 acres of agricultural land from the farmers at throwaway prices using her influence...then sold it for a commercial purpose," he added
According to the Indian Express report, 'two farmers from whom Damania bought land have claimed that she had bought the seven acres of land in 2007 claiming she would use it for agriculture, but then later in 2011 sold it to private individuals after the land was converted for use for activities other than agriculture'.
In 2007, Damania bought 39 contiguous plots totalling seven acres from farmers in Kharvandi village, adjacent to the Kondivade village where the Kondhane dam is proposed on the Ulhas River.
Kejriwal had earlier on Wednesday accused Gadkari of receiving personal favours by getting around 100 acres of agriculture land in Maharashtra after the Congress-NCP government there bent rules.
Kejriwal alleged a quid-pro-quo between BJP and Congress-NCP Government of Maharashtra, saying Gadkari and his party maintained 'silence' over various issues of corruption like the irrigation scam surrounding the Maharashtra Government.
The RTI crusader, who was accompanied by lawyer Prashant Bhushan and Mumbai-based IAC activist Anjali Damania, alleged that rules were bent by the Maharashtra government, particularly former Irrigation Minister Ajit Pawar to benefit Gadkari.
He claimed that vast tracts of land were acquired from farmers for building a dam in Umred taluka in Nagpur district and excess land that should have been returned to the farmers was given to Gadkari and his company following Ajit Pawar's intervention.
"The state government, which had rejected in 2002 the farmers' demand for return of the excess land, took the decision to give it to Gadkari within days of his request in June 2005," Kejriwal alleged.
Claiming to have letters signed by Ajit Pawar, he said that the then Irrigation Minister influenced the Vidharbha Industrial Development Corporation even though its secretary objected, saying it could not be done 'legally'. (ANI)
|
|
Comments:
