Political storm over allocation of Govt. land to Agri Min Sattar, Opposition MVA seeks resignation 

LoP Ajit Pawar accuses Sattar of exhorting officers in his dept. for securing heavy contributions for an Agri-fair

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Mumbai: The opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) on Monday trained their guns on Maharashtra Agriculture Minister Abdul Sattar over allotment of a government plot of land to a private person in Washim district. The MVA members vociferously demanded that Chief Minister Eknath Shinde sack Sattar from his state cabinet.

Leading the opposition charge in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, Leader of Opposition and senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Ajit Pawar produced a copy of the Bombay High Court’s (Nagpur bench) strictures on Abdul Sattar’s decision of handing over 37 acres of gairan (‘grazing land’) worth Rs. 150 crores to a certain Yogesh Khandale despite Supreme Court orders prohibiting change of reservation on grazing land. 

Pawar slammed Sattar for allegedly exhorting his officers in the Agriculture Department to seek hefty ‘contributions’ for the upcoming ‘Sillod Mahotsav’ – an agricultural fair that is supposed to be held in Sattar’s assembly constituency of Sillod in Aurangabad district. 

Days before the collapse of the Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA government in June, Sattar, who was the then Minister of State (MoS) for Revenue, had ruled in favour of allotting the plot of grazing land in Vidarbha’s Washim district to one Yogesh Khandale. 

Later, the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court had held that Sattar had taken the decision to allot land to Khandale despite the knowledge that the local court in Washim had not permitted Khandale’s claim over the gairan land. 

Demanding the resignation of Sattar, Ajit Pawar remarked, “He (Sattar) has flagrantly misused his position despite being well-aware of the strictures of the High Court and Supreme Courts. This is a scam to the tune of Rs. 150 crores. The district court had dismissed Khandale’s claim to this plot of gairan land of 37 acres and 19 gunthas, while observing that Khandale had been trying to seize that parcel of land. The then Washim district collector had written to the Additional Chief Secretary (Revenue) about Sattar’s decision to allot the land to a private citizen. Yet, no action has been taken against the Minister’s decision by the government.”

Former Speaker and senior NCP leader Dilip Walse-Patil demanded that a criminal case be filed against Sattar. While former Chief Minister and Congressman Prithviraj Chavan demanded Sattar’s removal from the cabinet till the High Court gave him a clean chit. 

Replying to the Opposition demands, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said that the government would examine the HC order and take the necessary action. He added the government would probe Sattar’s alleged order to his officers in the Agriculture Department to levy contributions for the agricultural fair in Sillod.  

Abdul Sattar has been repeatedly in the news for the wrong reasons since the past six months. Soon after the formation of the new Shinde-Fadnavis government, Sattar found himself in hot water after the names of two of his daughters appeared among the list of candidates debarred by the Maharashtra State Council of Exams (MSCE) for their involvement in the teacher eligibility test (TET) scam. 

In October, Sattar had dubbed Uddhav Thackeray led Sena faction leader and his son Aaditya Thackeray as ‘Chhota Pappu’. Later he sarcastically asked Beed District Collector Radhabinod Sharma if he ‘drank alcohol’ during a field visit. 

Then in November, Abdul Sattar’s unparliamentary language against NCP leader and Baramati Lok Sabha MP Supriya Sule triggered state-wide protests not just by the NCP but condemnation across the social and political spectrum including leaders in the ruling Shinde group.