Adarsh scam: Activists disappointed but will continue fight

MUMBAI: The Adarsh controversy was already under the radar of several public-spirited individuals and RTI activists months before the CBI stepped into the picture after the detailed TOI expose. While these activists are crestfallen following the rejection of the Adarsh judicial commission's report on Friday, they have vowed to "continue the fight to expose corruption by politicians in the case".

A day after the second and final part of the Adarsh report was rejected, RTI activist Santosh Daundkar was busy at a hearing of a PIL against MLAs. Daundkar was the first to file a PIL on the Adarsh issue. In March 2010, he and his lawyer Y P Singh created a stir among babus when Bombay high court sought replies on his PIL over "illegal permission" for the height of the building.

Advocate Singh, too, played a crucial early role. He said, "The first complaint against Adarsh was prepared in August 2008 for National Alliance of People's Movements. It was submitted to various authorities. But no action was taken for more than two years. The IAS officers were confident of the secured position and the immunity offered to them. It was this arrogance that constrained me to prepare the petition in the case. It was related to granting of height to Adarsh Cooperative Housing Society by Jairaj Phatak, the then municipal commissioner.''

On Saturday Daundkar said, "We will continue the battle. My PIL is still pending in the high court."

Another prominent RTI activist from the Forum for Fairness in Administration, Anandji Joshi, was among the first to seek information against Adarsh in March 2010. He had made queries with the MMRDA director on property card details of Adarsh land and development permissions granted.

On Saturday, Joshi said, he is "disappointed" with the manner in which the state has ''conveniently accepted the part of the report which was in its favour on the land title and rejected the stronger findings against politicians and members.'' He said, in any case, the issue of the land title is pending in the HC as the defence ministry has filed a title suit.

Yet another social activist who had taken on the issue at the very beginning, Simpreet Singh, condemned the state's "cherry picking".

Singh's criminal PIL in 2010 led to the CBI Investigating the Adarsh case. "The stand exhibits the failure of the chief minister. It appears he has bowed to a power nexus which he was supposed to weed out.''

A later entrant to the PILs against Adarsh, Thane resident and social activist Pravin Wategaonkar who sought criminal probe against members for alleged money laundering, said, "It appears the government rejected the report because both Congress and NCP leaders may have had 'proxies' who the panel found ineligible. Accepting the findings would have made several leaders susceptible to legal proceedings."