Sharad Pawar must resign: Medha Patkar

Noted social activist and leader of the National Alliance of People's Movement (NAPM) Medha Patkar has sought an immediate resignation from Union Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar.

In a strongly worded statement issued late Friday evening, Medha has charged Pawar and his family members, Supriya Sule and her husband Sadanand Sule of having invested crores of rupees in the Lavasa Hill City Project and for having raised more than 250 buildings in the Mosey River Valley without the legally mandatory clearance from the Centre.

"22 per cent of the shares of Lavasa Corporation Ltd, were owned by Supriya Sule and her husband when these illegalities and irregularities occurred. They can claim their innocence since they sold their shares, but the fact remains that they benefitted from this illegality and equally share responsibility when the corrupt and illegal land diversions took place," Medha said, alleging that the Pawars used their political influence to benefit LCC and accord all clearances.

The statement further stated that it was the NAPM exposed the Lavasa city scandal and former IPS officer YP Singh, who came out Thursday with the allegation of Arvind Kejriwal concealing facts regarding the charges against Sharad Pawar, has been the lawyer of the movement in this case. The NAPM, however, has sought to distance itself from the tussle between Singh and Kejriwal.

"We support his position that criminal cases need to be filed against all those responsible including the politicians. However, it is not NAPM’s intention to blame anyone for not raising this issue as the matter is before the High Court," the statement read.

Medha also attacked the Maharashtra government for failing to take adequate action against the politicians. "The Maharashtra government has taken some action such as filing a criminal case against the 15 office bearers of Lavasa, but it has failed to act against the politicians including Ajit Pawar who is already implicated in the irrigation scam recently exposed," the NAPM leader said.

Related Stories

'Kejriwal suppressed scam involving Pawar'