Pune: NCP (SP) state general secretary Rohit Pawar on Monday accused state revenue minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule of favouring an engineering firm and revising its penalty of over Rs90 crore for illegal sand mining to only Rs17 lakh. The grandnephew of Sharad Pawar also claimed that the same firm had donated large amounts to BJP through electoral bonds.Hitting back at him, the revenue minister called Rohit immature. “He (Rohit Pawar) is making these allegations only to remain in the limelight. He is new in politics and needs to get more mature,” Bawankule said.The NCP (SP) state general secretary used his social media handle “X” to share documents of questions raised by BJP MLA from Jalna’s Partur constituency, Babanrao Lonikar, pertaining to the action against the engineering firm and Bawankule’s reply to these during the monsoon session of the assembly.“The firm, which has been awarded the contract for the construction of Shegaon to Pandharpur Palkhi marg, has been found guilty of illegal sand mining. Additional collectors of Jalna and the tehsildar of Partur imposed separate fines on the engineering firm. The firm was to pay over Rs90 crore penalty, but the govt decided to be kind to it and revised the amount to Rs17 lakh only,” Rohit wrote.“Bawankule favoured the company which helped BJP with a huge donation, and he waived off more than Rs90 crore penalty of the firm. Such companies, contractors, real estate developers and politicians have now given anonymous advertisements across the state, glorifying the chief minister, Devendra Fadnavis,” Rohit claimed.Refuting Rohit’s allegations, Bawankule dared him to show evidence of favouring the company or quit politics. He said, “The issue raised by Rohit was of the last tenure of the govt, when Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil was the revenue minister. Neither he nor I waived off any penalty. We have only given a stay on the action. He (Rohit Pawar) needs to come out with better homework before making any claim.”
