Minister Chandrakant Patil has termed these allegations as baseless and stemming from political frustration. Talking to reporters, he said as per the 1885 land records, the land was not mentioned as devasthan land and hence no premium fees (nazrana) were required to be paid. “The documents of the land allotted to temple trusts are in the register of lands prepared by the British in 1885. When the RSV trust appealed against the commissioner’s orders, I found no mention of Mhatoba temple land in the register. Therefore, I adjudged it as private land,” he told the media. The minister was, however, unable to answer questions on whether the issue of the 1885 register was mentioned in Dhule's orders and had officers considered this register issue in their judgment? He said the officials had erred while deciding the Mhatoba Devasthan land as temple land.
In the case of Balewadi land, there was no decision, but only the land evaluation officer was replaced, he said. “Shivpriya Realtors approached me and contested Dhule's orders. The builder complained Goud had announced that her previous land measurement was wrong without giving us a hearing. The builder had also requested a re-measurement of the land. Based on the principles of natural justice, I ordered a re-measurement,” Chandrakant said. “Neither have I approved this project, nor have I allotted this playground land to the builder. The reservation of the playground land can only be changed by state cabinet,’” he added. Earlier in the day, Jayant Patil also made these allegations in the Legislative Assembly during a debate on the budget demands for the revenue department. However, Speaker Haribhau Bagade expunged the remarks after Parliamentary Affairs Minister Vinod Tawde said that the member had not given a notice before making these personal allegations.
