Mumbai: Maharashtra’s state minister for Cooperation Subhash Deshmukh, who has previously been accused of scams, is in the eye of the storm again. This time, he has been accused by the Congress of forging documents and fabricating permissions for extracting funds from the government for a fake milk processing factory, which allegedly did not exist. Congress has claimed that the BJP minister and his son have duped the National Agricultural Department Program of Rs 24.81 crore.
“He has no right to remain a minister in the State government. He should resign immediately. He is clearly a scamster. He has abused his constitutional authority and defrauded the Government of Maharashtra. He has taken advantage of his position and authorities for personal benefits time and again,” said Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam.
Lokmangal Multi-State co-operative Society limited, the co-operative body in question, is chaired by Subhash Deshmukh’s son Rohan Deshmukh.
Documents accessed by an RTI activist (a copy of which is in possession of CNN News18), show that various government agencies including the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board, Food and Drug Administration department, Maharashtra State Electricity Board, Public Works Department, Industrial Security and Health Department, have denied granting any permission to Lokmangal Multi-State co-operative Society Limited.
As per a letter dated July 2, 2018, the milk collection supervisor inspected the milk cold storage facility at Bibidarphal and milk processing units in Karmala, Sangola and Mangalvedha on June 26, and found that the factories were not processing even a single litre of milk. The letter stated, “The milk cold storage and processing facility of Lokmangal Multi-State co-operative society in Bibidarphal in Solapur is completely shut down at present. I attach herewith the inspection report of the Milk Collection Supervisor,” the District Information Officer said in his letter.
The set of documents show that Deshmukh’s co-operative society appended a letter of permission allegedly issued by the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board on April 22, 2014, giving consent for the manufacture of processed milk to the capacity of 1 lakh litre per day. But when the RTI activist wrote to the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board in 2018, it sent a written reply, saying no such permissions were granted by it to Lokmangal Co-operative society.
“We found that each and every permission was completely fabricated. The minister and his son showed false certificates of permission from the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board, Maharashtra State Electricity Board, Deputy Divisional Engineer of the Public Works Department and Food and Drug Administration. These documents were submitted to the Maharashtra government to get funds under the National Agriculture Department Program,” Nirupam said.
“This is an old issue. We haven’t taken a single rupee till date. Making allegations is everybody’s right in a democracy. But I deny these allegations. They are totally false and baseless,” Subhash Deshmukh told CNN News18.
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