CM confers 'FREEDOM FIGHTER' status to 52 people from Beed in a single day

The State govt, it seems has thrown caution to the winds, with even the CM ignoring the better sense, this can be simply understood by the Fadnavis Govt's decision to confer FREEDOM FIGHTER status to 88 people of which 52 people from Beed being conferred in a single day itself. This decision is based on treating various Attachment warrant issued to the those persons, as proof of participation in the freedom struggle. This is in complete contravention to the action of the previous govt which had constituted Justice Palkar Commission on recommendation of Hon'ble Supreme Court. The Palkar Commission had rejected the claims of beed district 298 claimants for the Freedom Fighter status on the basis of similar Attachment Warrants . This information was provided to RTI Activist Anil Galgali in reply to his query. The decision of CM will put an additional load of Rs 6.5 crores on the state exchequer. Further this has been done without the approval and recommendation of the District Felicitation committee and the District Collector. RTI Activist Anil Galgali had sought information from the govt on the status of the Freedom Fighters Pension issues. The GAD's Freedom Fighters desk informed Galgali that from 1st January 2015 to 5th June 2015, a total of 88 cases of Freedom fighters pension issues were approved , which comprised of 79 from Beed, 1 from Nanded, & 4 each from Osmanabad and Ahmed nagar. Important to highlight here is that, all the cases were not meeting the criteria finalised by the govt as per its resolution dt 4th July 1995, Also it is similar to the Prabhu Laxman Sanap case in which he had produced two different attachment warrants issued by Patoda and Ashti offices, on enquiry it was found that there were no original records of the warrants in the both offices, hence the claim was rejected by the govt on 25th November 2002. Having this precedent on record, yet the issue was handled dealt with at the Secretary level and approval was sought directly from the CM, bypassing laid down procedures of the dept. On a single day 52 people were conferred as Freedom Fighters alone from Beed district. It is important to state here that Hon'ble Supreme Court had in the past had constituted a commission under Retd Justice A B Palkar to investigate 355 bogus Freedom Fighters cases only from Beed. On investigation by the Commission it was found that 298 of the 355 cases were indeed bogus, acting on the orders the State Govt stopped pensions to these 298 persons of Beed district, who were found bogus now once again the Beed is in lime light as cases similar to the Ashti Attachment warrants, The Secretary level officials secured the CM's approval without seeking approval and recommendation from the District felicitation committee and the District Collector. On the contrary to the CM's action, Minister of State (Home) Ranjit Patil had rejected almost 40-45 of these cases. But the Secretaries sought the direct intervention of CM Fadnavis to secure pension benefits to 88 persons. Anil Galgali in a letter addresssed to CM Devendra Fadnavis, MOS (Home) Ranjit Patil, Chief Secretary Swadheen Kshatriya, & Principal Secretary (GAD) Sumeet Mallik has sought action on the irregularities committed by the GAD. The CM Secretariat in the just sanctioned 88 cases, stating that the irregularities in the cases are grave in nature leading to corruption and hence the said sanctions be revoked and criminal cases be filed against persons responsible for the irregularities. Galgali further expressed surprise on the decision of the CM to grant approval to 52 such cases belonging to the sensitive district like Beed on a single day without taking due caution.