Rs 45 crore Mahalaxmi temple land sold at Rs 4.9 crore

Vaishakh Krushnapaksha 1/2, Kaliyug Varsha 5115

Pune (Maharashtra) : Western Maharashtra Devasthan Committee, which manages Mahalaxmi temple, has allegedly sold its prime land to a builder in a fraudulent manner at a throwaway price.

The other discrepancy is that the sale was executed even when the revenue department did not give the permission for sale.The 7.5 acre land at block numbers 45 and 32 in Morewadi has been sold to city-based builder Dhananjay Salonkhe for Rs4.9 crore. BJP MLC Chandrakant Patil, who unearthed the alleged scam, told DNA that the market price of the land located near Shivaji University, Chitranagari and a well-known private school Shantiniketan is around Rs 45 crore.Western Maharashtra Devasthan Committee, which manages Mahalaxmi temple, has allegedly sold its prime land to a builder in a fraudulent manner at a throwaway price.

The temple committee sought permission from the secretary of the revenue department to sell the land on February 1, 2011. At the time, the then district collector Laxmikant Deshmukh, in a communication to the divisional commissioner of Pune dated May 22, 2012, stated that according to the provisions made under section 56D of the Bombay Public Trust Act, 1950, these lands came under Inam 3 and the committee only has the right to manage these lands. “It will not be appropriate to grant permission for selling the lands. The Mahalaxmi temple receives grants and donations from public and the government, and the reason for selling this land is not clear,” Deshmukh had stated.

Pune divisional commissioner had upheld the collector’s decision and communicated the same to the revenue department on May 28, 2012 stating that permissions should not be given to this deal, which “is not in the interest of the public and can create uproar amongst citizens.”

Since the sale deed is dated March 14, 2011, it’s clear that the temple committee did not even wait for the revenue department’s sanction to this transaction.

Committee secretary Hanumant Suryavanshi said that the committee has taken permission from the charity commissioner for this deal. Besides, the land was sold by calling tenders on October 19, 2003 in which Salonkhe was the highest bidder.

Patil cited the state government’s notification dated July 30, 2010 in which the government had directed all tehsildars for collecting information regarding the Inam lands of all devasthans in the state in which it has been mentioned that income from the devasthan’s Inam lands is to be used for incurring the expenditure of the concerned religious place and the transfer without government permission is illegal. “This deal should be cancelled and the person responsible for it must be booked,” he said.

Source : DNA