State paid panel probing Adarsh society scam Rs 7 crore

MUMBAI: Digging out truth has cost the state government dear. The state shelled out Rs 7.04 crore on the Adarsh commission that worked for 842 days; in other words, Rs 83,605 per day.
The commission was formed on January 8, 2011, and it handed the final report on April 18, 2013-12 days before the deadline. The commission was headed by retired high court judge Justice J A Patil, retired chief secretary P Subaryamanyam and 14 other staff members.The MMRDA provided a personal assistant, K K Nair.
Information sought by RTI activist Anil Galgali revealed the salary paid to the staff totalled Rs 1.88 crore, another Rs 7.9 lakh was spent on telephone and electricity, and Rs 8.8 lakh on sundry expenditure. Galgali filed an application with the general administrative department regarding the total expenditure, including salary, vehicle, phone and photocopying expenses as well as lawyers' fees.
The biggest tab came from lawyers. The state spent Rs 3.96 crore to pay senior counsel and lawyers' fees. Counsel Anil Sakhare was paid Rs 1.15 lakh for each appearance, each lawyer got Rs 25,000, while an assistant got Rs 5,000 per appearance. The non-effecting hearing charged by Sakhare was Rs 55,000.
Sakhare's payment totalled Rs 1.39 crore, advocate U B Nigot received Rs 51.37 lakh, advocate R M Vasudev's charges were Rs 39.07 lakh and advocate Vinay Masurkar presented a bill of Rs 13,000. The commission's senior counsel Dipan Merchant was paid Rs 1.48 crore, and junior counsel Bharat Jhaveri charged Rs 17.9 lakh.
The MMRDA ,which issued three commencement certificates and the occupation certificate to the 31-storied Adarsh housing society, spent Rs 1.02 crore. It renovated the old customs house office from where the commission functioned. Apart from shouldering the salary bill, it spent on stationery, computer, lockers and library books. It also provided three cars to members of the commission.
The Adarsh commission report is 691 pages long. Astonishingly, only one copy was printed and submitted to the government. A copy is not even available at the commission office.
Galgali said, "The panel was appointed to distract the public from the controversy. What is shocking is the money spent by different departments of the government that had to appoint various counsels and advocates and wastefully spend tax payers' money."
Times View
The Adarsh controversy scam was of a magnitude that shocked the nation. Yet, the contents of the report have been kept a secret. Public money was spent in investigating the case and tax-paying citizens have a right to know how powerful politicians and bureaucrats broke rules for their personal gains.