Shinde contradicts Rahul, says no wrongdoing in Adarsh

Rubbishing allegations of corruption in the allotment of flats in the Adarsh housing society, Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said on Monday the charge was baseless.

"There was no wrongdoing in Adarsh (flat allotment). The land belongs to the state government and there was no reservation for Kargil (jawans)," Shinde told reporters in Mumbai on Monday night.

The senior Congress leader was speaking after unveiling a bust of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar in suburban Kandivli.

These were the first public comments by Shinde, who is among the former chief ministers of Maharashtra credited with "political patronage" by the judicial commission, which probed the Adarsh scam.

The Maharashtra government had, on December 20, rejected the report of the judicial commission of inquiry on the Adarsh scam, tabled in the Legislative Assembly.

However, after Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi's intervention the government this month decided to partially implement the panel's recommendations, which the opposition has alleged, favours politicians while putting the onus only on bureaucrats.

The report of the two-member commission headed by retired high court judge J A Patil indicted several politicians including four former Chief Ministers -- Ashok Chavan, late Vilasrao Deshmukh, Sushilkumar Shinde and Shivajirao Nilangekar Patil -- for "blatant violations" of statutory provisions.

To a query on terror inputs received by the home ministry, Shinde said, "We keep getting such inputs from time to time."

Image: Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde