PWD officials are planning to replace staircase with lift in Nagpur's jinxed Devgiri bungalow, which is believed to have caused downfall of Bhujbal, R R Patil, Ajit Pawar and Khadse
PWD officials are planning to replace staircase with lift in Nagpur's jinxed Devgiri bungalow, which is believed to have caused downfall of Bhujbal, R R Patil, Ajit Pawar and Khadse
The staircase at the palatial bungalow Devgiri in Nagpur must be replaced with an elevator to ward off evil spirits and ensure political triumph. This was the instruction given to the city's PWD officials. And the office of Revenue Minister Chandrakant Patil, who will be staying there during the winter assembly session, claim to have no idea who issued the instruction and with what authorisation.
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Devgiri in Nagpur is allotted to the deputy chief minister or the seniormost Cabinet minister, who, in this case, is state Revenue Minister Chandrakant Patil (right)
Sources told mid-day that the Nagpur PWD officials were given the instruction to replace a spiral staircase with an elevator because some vaastu experts found the staircase unsuitable.
The sources added that experts were consulted in view of the history of Devgiri, which is allotted to the deputy chief minister or the senior-most Cabinet minister. They said the previous residents had suffered politically, and that experts advised that corrections, if done as per vaastu shaastra, would ward off whatever it was that posed dangers to the political careers of those who stayed there.
State Revenue Minister Chandrakant Patil
It is suspected that Patil's supporters or BJP leaders may have issued the instruction.
The doomed
Former deputy CMs Chhagan Bhujbal, late R R Patil and Ajit Pawar faced a lot of political turmoil. Bhujbal resigned as DCM and is now in jail. R R quit in the wake of the 26/11 terror attacks, while Pawar had to quit because of corruption allegations. Even though Pawar returned to office a couple of months later, his Nationalist Congress Party staged a poor performance in the 2014 polls, and he continues to face corruption charges that are being probed.
In BJP's Cabinet, Eknath Khadse was given Devgiri, and later, he too resigned. He hasn't been redrafted in the council of ministers. Last year, Chandrakant Patil, number two in the Devendra Fadnavis Cabinet, was allotted Khadse's bungalow, where he stayed for two weeks.
Incidentally, a Shiv Sena MLA in Kolhapur has demanded a probe in the remarkable turnover in a company owned by Patil's family. This is the first-ever such allegation made against Patil.
No idea, says Patil's office
When called, Patil's personal aide directed mid-day to the officer on special duty (OSD) in the minister's office, Atul Khanolkar.
Khanolkar said the minister's office wasn't aware of any proposed alterations.
"This is rubbish. The minister doesn't believe in vaastu shaastra. In fact, he had stayed at Devgiri last winter. Above all, Mr Patil hasn't made any changes to his official residence in Mumbai. People may verify this," he added.
Khanolkar said he did ask PWD officials in Nagpur and Mumbai whether they had planned to replace the staircase with an elevator.
"I'm told that they had proposed this. When I asked officials, they said they didn't seek permission from the minister's office. This is disturbing because we, in Mantralaya, didn't know about it," said the OSD.
He added that he had informed the minister about the development. "We have told the PWD to not go by any advice it gets from any local political leader or apply its own ideas. They are only allowed to carry out routine repairs and do pest control, because the bungalow remains shut most of the time," said Khanolkar.
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