THE Union environment ministry has ordered the controversial Adarsh housing society to be demolished within three months. But society members say they will not go down without a fight.
The members have rolled up their sleeves and are preparing for a long- drawn legal battle to save the building.
Satish Mane Shinde, the lawyer who represents the Adarsh housing society members, castigated environment minister Jairam Ramesh for the order. He accused the minister of being " biased against Adarsh all along". " I am neither surprised not shocked by the decision. There was no hurry to pass the order on a Sunday. It was put up on the Internet. We still haven't got a copy of the order yet," the lawyer said.
Shinde added that Ramesh was not part of the five- member committee that had heard the society's reply to the show cause notice it had been served earlier. But still, it was Ramesh who gave the final order.
He hinted that the society would soon challenge the decision in a court of law.
Sources close to the society said they would apply for a stay on the order at the Bombay High Court within a week.
" I have seen the order ( on the Internet) and it was riddled with inconsistencies. The members of Adarsh and lawyers will sit together soon and decide the future course of action," Shinde said.
The society has already engaged a number of senior lawyers for the purpose.
" It's not just about saving the building. If the building is demolished, then so will the careers of a number of bureaucrats and politicians as it would imply that those involved did something that was illegal," a source said.
On another note, state information commissioner Ramanand Tiwari met Governor K. Shankaranarayanan on Sunday in a bid to explain the allegations being piled against him vis- Ea- vis the Adarsh scam.
Tiwari told the governor that he was being made a scapegoat and that he was innocent.
" I have not put in my papers and nor have I been told to do so by the governor. I presented my side of the story to him," he said after the meeting.
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