MPCC chief Manikrao Thakre on Tuesday not only denied the allegations made by BJP president Nitin Gadkari, he also made serious counter-allegations against the Opposition leader.
“He seems to be frustrated due to the allegations against him in the media. He has been threatening to sue people in the court. But, I will be sending him a legal notice for the allegations he has levelled against me,” said Mr Thakre.
“He has made allegations that I did not refund `23 lakh due to farmers. But the allegations are wrong. I do not owe anyone any money,” said Mr Thakre.
The MPCC president said that he was never the president of the sugar factory Mr Gadkari was talking about. “There could be some transactions between two factories, but I confirmed from my factory, there was no outstanding due to any farmers — not even transport charges. I will be sending a legal notice to him,” said Mr Thakre.
However, the main allegation made by Mr Thakre was that for the Usegaon lift irrigation project in Chandrapur district, 23 farmers who were amongst 146 members of Aroni Irrigation Cooperative Society were asked to give their land for sugarcane farming. They were enticed to give the land under the impression that sugarcane farming would help them prosper. Loans of `35 lakh was incurred from the district Central Cooperative Bank in lieu of 7/12 extracts of these farmers’ lands.
“Satyam, a firm formed by Gadkari entered into an agreement with the farmers for getting loans. This company took away all the money and wound up its business. The farmers were thus left in the lurch,” said Mr Thakre. Mr Thakre said he would ask the CM to arrange for a separate inquiry into it.