CM Fadnavis orders probe into tender process involving Shiv Sena Minister's son

Mumbai, July 7 (IANS) Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Monday announced a high-level enquiry into the tender process for the sale of Hotel VITS at Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar which involved the company of state's Social Justice Minister and Shiv Sena leader, Sanjay Shirsat's son Siddhant.

He made this announcement during a discussion on a Calling Attention Motion moved by Leader of the Opposition Ambadas Danve on the now cancelled tender process for the sale of the said hotel.

Danve said, "A company formed in 2024 was allowed to participate in the bid. The hotel bid was fixed at the 2018 rate, which was severely undervalued. The cartelisation of the companies led to acceptance of a tender of a company which did not have three years of ITR as required. Will there be action against the officials and the company which had won the tender?"

Revenue Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule informed that the said tender process has now been cancelled.

"We had previously issued six tenders since 2018, for which no company came forward. The hotel's value was fixed based on the special MPID court," he said.

The VITS hotel was the property of Dhanada Corporation Limited, listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

In 2016 and 2017, the properties of the company were seized including the said hotel. In a bid to return the money of shareholders, its auction was held.

However, according to the minister, no company came forward for six tender processes held since 2018.

Danve said that M/s Siddhant Material Procurement and Supply company won the tender at a small price of Rs 65 crore at a time when the current valuation of the hotel is around Rs 150 crore.

He mentioned that the owner of the company that bid for the hotel is Siddhant Shirsat, the son of a minister and the minister's election affidavit for year 2024 shows no property belonging to his son.

He was joined by Opposition MLCs Anil Parab, Bhai Jagtap and Shashikant Shinde seeking action from the government on officials as well as the company owner.

As Bawankule maintained that the tender process had been cancelled and the new process would take all the precautions, the Opposition pressed for action and resignation of Minister Shirsat.

Amid sloganeering, Minister Shirsat presented his side. "The entire process has run through court orders. Every tender has been issued after a court order and not by officials. Nobody came forward when the tender was issued six times," said Shirsat, adding that all the allegations were false and baseless.

As the sloganeering continued, Chief Minister Fadnavis said that the Revenue Minister has clarified that the process has been cancelled.

"It is important such cases should have transparency. Therefore, a high level enquiry will be conducted to probe as to whether any irregularity has taken place in the entire process," he added.

--IANS

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