Mumbai: After the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) questioned the allotment of 225 flats to sitting and former MLAs and MLCs in a MHADA building in Versova, controversy clutches the entire process adopted by the Congress-led state government in doling out the flats in 2009. A draft report prepared by the national watchdog has found a number of loopholes in the allotment process and the occupation of the two-bedroom flats of 1,000 sq ft each in Rajyog society.
It has emerged that roughly around 70 legislators - who were considered for allotment on the basis that they did not own a residential property within city limits - have rented out their flats soon after obtaining them, while they themselves continue to stay in MLA hostels. Top sources cited the draft report to say that the beneficiaries of the allotment are not eligible for a government accommodation provided to them in the MLA hostels in South Mumbai.
"Quoting a MHADA rule, the CAG report states that it is erratic that almost all the members who got possession in Rajyog society in Versova continue to occupy rooms in MLA hostels," a highly-placed source said.
CAG observations
Sources told MiD DAY that CAG questioned why all of the 225 flats in the society were handed over when the society could submit a list of not more that 214 beneficiaries. Moreover, despite overshooting the specified number, as many as 28 flats remained vacant until August this year since the actual possession was given to a lesser number of members.
Later, a few more names were added to the list of members, taking the number of beneficiaries to 222, still short of the actual number of allotments made. This when there is a huge demand for houses by the general public in the city.
The CAG also noted that the society has failed to adhere to the norm of reservation quota as only 35 persons from the reserved category were offered membership in the society, when their number should have been 45.
Coming to expenditure, even two years after the flats were allotted in August 2009, Rajyog society has not paid the entire cost of the 225 flats which is Rs 95 crore. It has paid only Rs 86 crore for 203 flats. Incidentally, while each flat has been allotted at Rs 42.46 lakh, its current market value is around Rs 1.5 crore.
Only for 'homeless'
Furthermore, according to MHADA regulation, the allottees or their spouses or minor children should not possess a residential property in the municipal limit.
The CAG audit says that Bhagyashri, wife of Parliamentary Affairs and Cooperation Minister Harshwardhan Patil, who is the chief promoter of the society, Minister of State for PWD Ranjit Kamble and former MoS Chandrakant Chhajed were already members of the Ashirvad Cooperative Housing Society in Andheri when they were allotted the Rajyog flats in 2009.
Meanwhile, sources told this newspaper that most of the tenants in Rajyog society were artists and members from production units of TV serials.
Rs 46.46 lakh: cost at which the flats in Rajyog Society, Versova were given to MLAs
Rs 1.5 crore: market value of each flat
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