A cloud of uncertainty looms over a decision taken by erstwhile CM Eknath Shinde’s government to sublease two acres of land in Pune, near Sassoon Hospital, worth Rs 400 crore, to a private developer for just Rs 60 crore. With Devendra Fadnavis now taking charge as CM, the Pune BJP has written to him demanding that the deal be stopped.

They have demanded that a cancer hospital be constructed on the same plot as proposed earlier. If Fadnavis decides to cancel or review the land deal, this would be Shinde’s second decision under the scanner in merely three months of the BJP-led Mahayuti government. Earlier this month, CM Fadnavis asked the City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) to review a Rs 900 crore housing project in Jalna. The project, initially scrapped in 2020 due to feasibility concerns, was revived later under Shinde, who was also in charge of the Urban Development Department.