Call for “Save Mahanadi” by
Govt. of Odisha for Whose interest – Company or farmers and common people?
Dear friends
In the Backdrop of
Mahasangram for Mahanadi- a call given by BJD Govt. to
save Mahanadi which is going to
be greatly affected or dried
up due to over-exploitation
of water
by Chhatisgarh Govt. and its
damaging impact on agriculture and
livelihood of millions of the people of Odisha, series of RTI Applications have been submitted to State Govt. and Central Govt. to unearth the truth about
the allegations made by Govt. of Odisha and status of
Hirakud Dam, quantity of water
used by different stake holders,
real exploiter of Mahanadi river,
revenue generated, benefit reached to
farmers etc.
RTI Application dated 1.10.16
was submitted to PIO, Dept. of Water resources about details of water tax pending against the
companies and steps taken by Govt. to recover water tax since 16 years of BJD Govt. On 27.10.16, the PIO, office of Engineer-in-Chief
has supplied the following information.
1. Since
2000, water tax amounting Rs. 1886.64 crores is pending against 32 prominent
Companies who have brough stay order from Odisha High Court. This is the arrear revenue as on 31.3.2016
has been locked up due to court cases. The court cases are going on since 16
years. Though the Chief Minister has kept this Dept. with him since last 16 years, he has not been able
to vacate the cases in High Court. Even from the beginning, many efficient IAS
officers like Bijay Patnaik, Sri Aurobido Behera, Sri Suresh Mohapatra and presently
Sri Pradeep Jena have served as Secretary of this Water Resource
Dept. But they have not succeeded to vacate stay in the court.
Is it their inefficiency that
they could not be able
to fight against powerful companies
or are they working under
pressure from their boss to protect the interest of
Corporate house. So it can be concluded that the Companies are enjoying unbridled
power more
than State Govt. in such way
that they continue taking
water from Mahanadi and other rivers
without paying a single pie for several years. It is needless to mention
here that the State Govt. has spent lakhs
of rupees towards payment of fee for
advocates to fight the case in High court without any tangible
results. It has happened
due to nexus of politicians
and corrupt bureaucracy with companies. The interest of the State
has been sacrificed by Sri Nabin
Patnaik, Chief Minister of Odisha for
corporate house.
2. It
was also observed from the content of information supplied by the PIO
that last hearing of the cases filed by Companies
challenging fixation of water
tax was held by High
Court on 15.1.16. The Chief Engineer, water services has filed additional affidavit on 3.2.15 for 20 number of cases. Though one and half year passed, the
Govt. could not ensure
further hearing of the case
by the Court on priority basis.
This is the efficiency of the administration of the State Govt.?
3. The
prominent Companies having arrear
outstanding of water tax (whose case is
pending in High court ) are Sewa Paper
Mill, Jeypore ( 291.81 crores ), NALCO, Damanjodi ( 97.21 crore), M.C.L.,
Talcher ( 305.45 crore), M/s Orissa Power Consortium Ltd. ( 109.36 crore),
Orient Paper Mill, Brajaraj Nagar ( 85.17 crore), Arati Steel ( 23.48 crore),
Viraj Steel and Energy Ltd. ( 12.02 crore), NALCO, Angul ( 439.00 crore), Sri
Mahavir Fello Alloys ( 20.38 crores). Reliance Industries, Dhenkanal ( 17.50
crore), Tata Refractories Ltd. ( 25.78 crore).
4. The total amount of Rs. 255.07 crore of arrear water tax revenue
are outstanding against the 151 Companies without
Court cases since 2000. The prominent
companies from whom the State
Govt. has not been able to collect water tax are M/s Bhusan Limited ( 29.71 crore), M/s Shyam DRI Pvt. Ltd. (
40.93 crore), M/S ESPL Ltd. ( 8 crore),
ESSAR Steel Ltd. ( 16.83 crore), Adhuik Metalliks ( 13.12 crore) etc.
5. On
query about steps taken by Water
Resources Dept. to collect pending water
tax from the Companies, the PIO has said that
as per decision taken in the meeting chaired by the Chief Secretary on 5.5.2015 with Advocate
General, Principal Secretary, Law, the field level Executive Engineers were directed
to file Misc. cases before High
Court praying to direct the petitioner Industry to deposit 50% of outstanding water tax until final disposal of the case and vacation of stay order. Accordingly Misc. Case has been filed against
12 companies in
High Court. But nothing has happened.
6. Despite
several persuasion by High level officers to the Companies for quick payment of outstanding water Tax, they are not responding and continue to ignore
Govt. appeal. This is the
hopeless state of affairs in the State administration.
Pradip
Pradhan
M-9937843482
Date-
28.10.16
No comments:
Post a Comment