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Holding that the Adarsh Housing scam was a classic case of fence eating the crops and 'consistent failure' of Centre and Maharashtra government, the Comptroller and Auditor General on Tuesday said rules were bent to benefit relatives of politicians, public servants and senior service officers including former Army chiefs Gen Deepak Kapoor and N C Vij.
In a report tabled in Lok Sabha, the government auditor named two former chief ministers of Maharashtra, Ashok Chavan and Sushil Kumar Shinde, as part of the process of giving clearances to the society's project and came down heavily on concessions granted by the Maharashtra government.
Recommending punitive action against those responsible, the CAG disagreed with suggestions for razing the 31-storeyed building but favoured central government acquiring it for housing purpose.
The CAG said, "It reflects a consistent failure across departments, state and central governments and all officialdom. The case would perhaps have no parallel in the country where all agencies have pooled their strengths not for a common national cause but for personal benefit."
The report said in the process of seeking apartments in a prime location for themselves, "they have resorted to falsification of records, suppression of facts and abundantly used the noble cause of welfare of servicemen and their widows." The CAG also targeted the Union environment ministry and the Maharashtra urban development ministry saying indications were there that procedures were skirted to enable grant of no objection certificate to the society.
The CAG said welfare of servicemen and ex-servicemen was used as a ruse to grab the piece of public land for the society. It said the entire episode reveals "glaring examples of dereliction of duty and severe lack of probity and accountability which needs to be seriously investigated.
"Action of the local military authorities acting in collusion with defence estates organisation enabled misappropriation of prime government land in Mumbai for the benefit of a select few," it said.
The auditor pointed out that the membership of the society kept expanding where "junior service and civilian officers went out of the society and many senior service officers and public servants became members. Notable among Service officers who became members of the society at a later date were two former Army Chiefs General N C Vij and Deepak Kapoor," it said.
Other significant members who benefited include former Navy Chief Admiral Madhavendra Singh, Lt Gen G S Sihota, Rear Admiral R P Suthan.
Highlighting the role of commanders of Mumbai-based Maharashtra, Goa and Gujarat army area, the report said all service officers except one who were in-charge between February 1998 and July 2010, became beneficiaries as per the list of the members of the society.
The report said that on July 20, 2009, the then Chief Minister Ashok Chavan approved a proposal from the society. It said that, "at every stage, significant concessions were extended by the Maharashtra Government in favour of the society."
The CAG said the land was in possession of the Army but its title was never transferred to defence ministry. It said the environment ministry certainly "either failed or consciously decided" not to apprise the state government of the extant provisions of the Coastal Regulation Zone notifications.
"It is for Parliament and the government to ensure that public trust is not betrayed," it said.
On demolishing the building in view of the irregularities, the CAG said the suggestion was probably made in haste. "To raze it to the ground would compound the problem," it said, adding, now that it has been incorrectly constructed an option would be for the government to acquire it and use for housing of which there is enormous shortage in Mumbai. It said the government may compensate Society members who have paid and allot apartments in genuine cases.
The CAG observed that in its communications with the state and central governments to seek concessions, the Adarsh Cooperative Housing Society described its members as those "who have dedicated their lives for the motherland" and "heroes of Kargil war".
The auditor said those in positions of responsibility should have sensed that the concept of the society was "flawed as very few war widows or ex-servicemen would have had the financial capacity to pay for an apartment at such prime locality."