The print : PTI: Mumbai: Friday, November 01, 2024.
Maharashtra deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday said anyone can access through the RTI the file concerning a probe against Ajit Pawar in the alleged irrigation scam, and showing it to him did not amount to breach of secrecy.
Pawar, also a deputy CM, said at a rally two days ago that then state home minister and his NCP colleague late R R Patil had signed the file clearing inquiry against him, and thus betrayed him.
Pawar also disclosed that it was Fadnavis, as chief minister from 2014 to 2019, who showed him the file with Patil’s signature, prompting Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut to accuse both Fadnavis and Pawar of the breach of oath of secrecy.
“There was no breach of secrecy in showing the file to Ajit Pawar,” Fadnavis told reporters here when asked about Raut’s objection.
“The contents of the file can be accessed by filing an application under the Right to Information Act. It is also true that approval for the inquiry against Ajit Pawar was given when the Congress and (undivided) Nationalist Congress Party were in power,” the BJP leader added.
The Congress-NCP government had faced allegations of massive financial irregularities in irrigation projects. Ajit Pawar was the minister of the concerned departments then, and the opposition, including the BJP, had sought his resignation.
The BJP and Ajit Pawar’s NCP faction are now on the same side of the political divide after he joined the BJP-Shiv Sena government last year.
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