Maha: Ajit Pawar denies Borwankar’s charge, points finger at then home ministers

Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar has denied any role in a publicprivate partnership PPP in which the police department was to get residential and office complexes built in exchange for a threeacre plot of land in Yerawada in Pune He was responding to allegations that have been made by former Pune police chief Meeran Borwankar in her bookAccording to Borwankar Pawar the then guardian minister of Pune had asked her to expedite the transfer of Yerawada police land to a private company that had entered into a PPP agreement with the home department In exchange for the prime land the developers were to construct police stations residential and office complexes in Yerawada and on the companys land somewhere else in the city After being posted in Pune Borwankar refused to part with the Yerawada landAjitrsquos versionOn Tuesday Pawar said when he was told about the delay he had asked Borwankar about it ldquoI merely asked Borwankar about the progress She said she wasnrsquot interested in handing over the land And I forgot about itrdquo he said adding that the PPP land deal was scrapped not because of Borwankar but because the enforcement agency had attached the land where the builder had planned to build the police housing unitsAjit Pawar deputy chief ministerPawar said the decision of agreement was taken by then Home Minister R R Patil 2008 and a committee appointed by the government The matter was followed up by R R Patils successor Jayant Patil 2009 ldquoLet them probe I havent signed a document or attended a meetingrdquo he said adding ldquoMost importantly the land is still there and in possession of the police department What will they investigaterdquoAccording to Pawar the government panel had recommended a PPP deal saying that against a land piece worth R3 crore the police department stood to get the assets worth Rs 15 core Borwankars predecessor Satyapal Singh who later became a Union minister of state for home was very much interested in the deal he said wondering whether the controversy raked up after 15 years was a marketing stunt to boost book saleslsquoProbe nexusrsquoBorwankar on Monday said there was a need to review instances of government land given to builders as there was a nexus among politicians builders bureaucrats and the police In the book Borwankar claimed she had opposed the land being handed over to the builder who was cited as an accused by the CBI in the 2G telecom scamQueried on the Nationalist Congress Party NCP faction of Ajit Pawar thinking of sending her a defamation case notice if she failed to prove her allegations Borwankar said they could do soldquoNo one has read the book Without reading the book a headline was given that the police land was auctioned by Ajitdada But in reality it did not happen that way The thendivisional commissioner Dilip Bund has taken responsibility that the land was auctioned by himrdquo the former Pune police commissioner told reporters in DelhiClaiming that police officials had been calling her since Sunday to thank her for saving the departmentrsquos land Borwankar said ldquoThis is not the only case We all know that builders vie for government lands but it is our collective responsibility to safeguard such lands and utilise it for public interestrdquoAfter she put her foot down on the land transfer the builder who she identified as ldquoShahid Balwardquo went to court Borwankar said Asked about the then state home ministerrsquos R R Patil stand on the issue she said he had called a meeting of officials including the home secretary and had contended there should be no problem in handing over the landldquoHowever when we the police explained our position that if we let go of this land then no one would hand over a threeacre plot to construct police offices and residential quarters the home minister changed his stand The court was then apprised that the state government had changed its decisionrdquo she claimedlsquoSought transfer to CID as ADGrsquoAsked whether she implied in the book that she was transferred before the end of her tenure as Pune commissioner as she had opposed Pawar Borwankar said ldquoThe tenure was of two years When the transfer orders came I was asked about my preferred choice of posting I sought a transfer to the CID as ADG additional director general of police as the post was vacantrdquoBorwankar claimed the then chief minister told her ldquotheyrdquo are not agreeing to making her ADG CID and that he had to follow ldquocoalition dharmardquo The Congress and NCP were running a government in alliance at the time and the latter had the home department under which the police functionBorwankar after her stint as Pune CP was transferred to the Puneheadquartered State Prisons Department as ADG She was Pune police commissioner between 2010 and 2012 Asked whether a ldquopoliticalrdquo colour was being given to the land episode Borwankar said the book manuscript had been given to the publisher a year agoThey the publisher took the time to edit and the book was in the printing process for the last two months ldquoThere is a need to review all government land given to buildersrdquo Borwankar assertedWith inputs from Agencies