MIDC land deal controversy: Shiv Sena rubbishes allegations against Subhash Desai of flouting norms

Mumbai: The Shiv Sena on Monday came out in support of its leader and Maharashtra Industries Minister Subhash Desai, against whom the opposition NCP has levelled allegations of flouting norms in the acquisition of 400 acres of land in Nashik by a state agency. [caption id=“attachment_3806351” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Reuters[/caption] The leader of the Opposition in the state Legislative Council, Dhananjay Munde, had on Friday alleged that 400 acres land acquired by the MIDC in Nashik was returned to the original owners, flouting the norms. He demanded an inquiry into the matter. The Sena, in an editorial in the party mouthpiece ‘Saamana’, on Monday accused the opposition of levelling “baseless allegations” and said the land was given back to the farmers in accordance with their wishes. “The opposition has tried to level baseless allegations against Subhash Desai. The allegations could not stand because there was not an iota of truth in them. The opposition claimed that there was a scam in the acquisition of MIDC land…but in reality, it (the land) was given back to the farmers in accordance to their wishes,” it said. “The opposition, on the one hand, is opposing the land acquisition process for the Samruddhi (Mumbai-Nagpur) Expressway claiming justice is not served to farmers and on the other hand, is finding fault even when land was given back to farmers as per their wishes,” the Sena said. Moving an adjournment motion in the Legislative council on Friday, Munde said a series of agreements were made between the state government and some companies during the ‘Magnetic Maharashtra’ event in 2016 but the investors were not getting the required land to start operations. “Industries minister had ordered exclusion of 60 percent of the notified land of MIDC,” he said. Munde further alleged that Desai had denotified a large parcel of land earmarked in Nashik district to benefit a builder.