The recent Parth Pawar land grab deal created enough of a controversy to lift the veil on a larger problem. The deal involved transfer of 40 acres of government land in Pune, reserved for the scheduled caste community, to a firm linked to deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar’s son for just Rs300 crore, against an estimated market value of Rs1,800 crore. It also involved an illegal stamp duty waiver of Rs21 crore, granted under the pretext of setting up a data centre. This caused a political uproar, leading to a hasty reversal and cover up. But it reveals a disturbing truth. That land grab by politically connected persons has become normalised across Maharashtra. Public infrastructure agencies are now behaving like private landlords, rushing to ‘monetise’ land that was originally grant

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