Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) Irregularities: ‘Probe not moving’
Activist and petitioner Shailesh Gandhi has moved a fresh application with regard to the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) scheme. In the application, Gandhi states that the agencies that were appointed by the Bombay High Court to look in to the irregularities in SRA schemes, have been inactive.
On March 28, Gandhi submitted his application before a division bench of acting Chief Justice JN Patel and Justice SC Dharmadhikari. It stated that though the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) had forwarded 247 complaints to the Principal Secretary (Housing Department), no investigations has been initiated yet.
Earlier this month, the Bombay High Court had directed the police and the ACB to investigate all complaints regarding SRA frauds. It had approved of a one-man enquiry committee to look in to the case. The order had been given following a public interest litigation (PIL) that Gandhi had filed, which sought the appointment of a Special Investigation Team to examine irregularities and corruption in the implementation of SRA schemes.
Now, Gandhi pointed out that it seemed that no investigations would be carried out before the preliminary enquiry. Gandhi stated that if this were the state of affairs, then the agencies that are supposed to file progress reports on June 13 would not have anything to report on.
However, Advocate General Ravi Kadam appearing for the state submitted that the complaints had been forwarded to the Principal Secretary so that the committee could segregate the cases.
The court has now asked Kadam to take instructions and give a reply on Thursday.
The case
Earlier, the court had approved a one-man committee appointed by the state government to enquire into complaints of irregularities in SRA projects. The committee is headed by JS Gill, former president of MHADA and presently the Principal Secretary of the State Transport and Excise department. It had directed the state government to investigate all complaints received by the ACB against SRA.
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