Status of ATR on Task Force Report on Land Scam in Odisha

Status of ATR on Task Force Report on Land Scam in Odisha

(Not a single tangible  achievement  made  by State Govt.  since two years)

In view of CAG report about  alleged irregularities in allotment of land/houses/flats by Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA), Cuttack Development Authority (CDA), Odisha State Housing Board (OSHB) and General Administration (GA) Department, the State Government had constituted a  Task Force  on dated 2.8.2014  to review all the allotment of more than one land/houses/flats to the members of the same family and allotment under discretionary quota to ineligible persons from 1995 to 2014 and submit its report within 4 months.  The Task Force led by Dr. Taradatt, Addl. Chief Secretary with the members such as Commissioner-cum-Secretary, H&UD Department and Special Secretary, Dept. of GA produced their report on 3.11.14. The report was placed before state cabinet on 18.12.14 and it was endorsed with   Action Taken Report   which was later on published in official Gazette on 30.1.2015. Two years  have passed  since ATR, not  a single  land  has been   recovered  to Govt. fold  nor was   a single  allottee    arrested  by  the  Directorate of State  Vigilance. On 16.4.16 while  reviewing  the status  of Action taken  for  recovery of the  land allotted illegally  by BDA, CDA, OSHB and GA, the Chief Secretary  has   informed the press that  In the month of June , 2016, RTI  Application was  submitted  to  the  General  Administration Department, Bhubaneswar Development  Authority (BDA), Cuttack Development Authority (CDA),  Odisha State Housing Board (OSHB)  seeking  information about  details of  land  recovered  from the  people  who have  illegally taken the  land  or allotted under  Discretionary  Quota  and   name  of the  people  who returned the land and Action Taken  against the  people  who have taken  multiple  plot  by filling false  affidavit. While   BDA    refrained from  disclosure  of   any information,  CDA  provided   a list of  1091 allottees  who have  been issued  show-cause  notice in August 2016. No information was obtained from the General Administration Department.  State Vigilance  denied to provide any information  as the matter is under investigation. On 20.8.16, Odisha State Housing Board  provided the  information  that  66 people  allotted land under Discretionary Quota  and 24 people  taking multiple plots  by filling false affidavit  have been issued  show-cause notice.  The PIO denied  to disclose their names  as the matter is under investigation  by State Vigilance. The details of Status of ATR is as follows.

Recommendation by  Task force	Action Taken  Report  declared by Govt.   in Dec. 2014	Present Status
1. All such plots allotted by Government in GA Department, BDA, CDA and OSHB should be resumed, if the allottees have failed  to construct houses within stipulated five years.	It  was accepted  by Govt.	No Action  has been taken till yet.
2. BDA, OSHB and GA Department in conjunction with each other should take up another exercise to obtain comprehensive details including the allotments made prior to 01 .01 .1995 to know the exact extent of individuals and families who have taken undue benefits of multiple allotments against the schematic provisions. Similar exercise is  to be  conducted  for Cuttack by CDA and OSHB together.	BDA, OSHB and GA  Department  will examine  the allotments  made prior  to 1.1.1995  at  Bhubaneswar  to determine  the exact  list  of allottees  who have  availed  the irregular  benefit  of more than  allotment  of land / flat/ house  against  the specific  schematic  provisions. CDA  and  OSHB  will make  similar exercise  for cuttack urban areas.  The Exercise  will be completed  within six months.	Not  a single step has been taken  by the BDA, CDA and OSHB  till yet.
3. Independent investigation/audit is necessary to quantify  the actual number of multiple allotments of plots/houses/flats by GA Department, BDA, CDA and OSHB against Affidavits/ Applications, both false and not false.	List  of  multiple  allotments  pointed  out by Task force  has been made  on the  limited  information supplied by BDA, CDA and OSHB. Finance Department therefore conduct a special audit of all  left out cases  of  multiple allotments  as recommended by task Force. Action should be taken  by the  concerned authorities  against the allottees.	Finance Department has not come out  with any audit report  till yet.
4. Beneficiaries who submitted false Affidavits/Declarations to get   allotments should also be proceeded against under the relevant provisions of law. The plots/houses/flats allotted to them should either be put to auction or allotted to deserving applicants through lottery.	General  Administration  ( Vigilance)  Department  will  enquire  into those  cases  of  multiple allotments  to individuals/ families  where  such  allotments  have been  made  on the  basis  of false  affidavits  or  misleading  information  in violation of  specific  schematic  provision  and initiate  criminal action.	As per the information supplied by the Govt. , State Vigilance  has started  the enquiry. But  not  a single  land has  been recovered  and nobody has been arrested till yet.
5. All the  discretionary  allotment  made      after 1.1.1995  should be cancelled as such allotments  have been  invariably given undue Benefits  to  undeserving persons. Many well-placed and   connected individuals have received discretionary allotments more than once from BDA, CDA, OSHB.	BDA, OSHB, CDA and GA  Department  should cancel  the  multiple allotments, additional units allotted  to ineligible  individuals/ families  as pointed out  by the task Force  in its report  and resume the same  to the  concerned authorities.	Not a single Discretionary allotment has been cancelled.   BDA, CDA and OSHB could not supply any information under RTI.
6. Since the  lists of DQ allottees have been prepared on the  basis  of limited information  supplied by BDA, CDA, OHSB, further independent investigation/audit is recommended to be undertaken to find out the actual size of discretionary allotments  including those  not  placed  before the Task Force for discovery.	Finance  Department  will conduct  a special  audit  to find out  the actual  number  of discretionary allotments  made  after  1.1.1995  including those  not  placed  before  the Task Force  as recommended  by Task force.  Action should be  taken by  the  concerned  authorities  against these  left  out cases.	Finance Department  has not come out  will  any  special audit report till yet.
7.  Cancellation of all such   pre-possession transfers except in the event of death of the allottees  and  fixation of accountability  against  the  officials who granted permission   transfers. As regards post-possession transfers,  the Task Force recommends  that such transfers by Discretionary Quota allottees  and multiple allottees should also be  cancelled.	BDA, CDA and  OSHB  should cancel  all allotments of  plot/house/flat under  Discretionary Quota  made  under  different schemes  after 1.1.1995 including  their  pre and post-possession  transfers  and the  plots/houses  and flats  should  be  resumed  to the  concerned  authorities.	No step  has been  taken  till yet.
8. The BDA, CDA and OSHB may be called upon to explain as to how they have permitted transfers of plots/houses/flats by allottees    without approval of the General Administration Department/ Revenue  and Disaster Management Department i.e., lessor. Stringent action may be taken  for permitting pre-possession transfers.	Nothing is mentioned in ATR.	No action Taken.
9. Recovery  may be made from allottees who have disposed the plots/houses/ flats  allotted to them    including  under Discretionary Quota and have applied and succeeded in getting allotments again including discretionary quota.	BDA, OSHB, CDA and GA  Department  should cancel  the  multiple allotments, additional units allotted  to ineligible  individuals/ families  as pointed out  by the task Force  in its report  and resume the same  to the  concerned authorities.	Not a single  land/plot  has been recovered  till today.
10. Allotment of plots/houses/flats without evident publicity or by notifying the scheme only on the office Notice Board needs to be viewed seriously and cancelled. Those responsible for implementing such scheme should be proceeded against departmentally and criminally.    Disciplinary action should be taken for implementing    schemes exclusively for the employees of the implementing agencies concerned and all such allotment should be cancelled.	Not  anything mentioned  in  Govt. ATR
11. Steps should be taken in a time bound manner for addressing the specific irregularities in the segment of the report.   The land meant    for housing but allotted otherwise   (for example, about 20 Ac.  Of such land had been given to SoA University by BDA) and land given for institutional purpose       but used for housing and otherwise should also be resumed.	G.A. Department  will work out  the modalities  of implementation of  the  Task Force  report  in a time bound manner  in consultation  with Law Department  and the Advocate  General.  This  exercise  is to be  completed  within 90 days.

Pradip Pradhan

State  Convener, Odisha Soochana Adhikar Abhijan

M-9937843482

Date-29.11.16 

Updating Civil Society Intervention on “Child Death in Malkangiri district of Odisha”

Updating Civil Society Intervention on “Child Death in Malkangiri district of Odisha”

The large-scale child death due to hunger, malnutrition and   absence of effective health service delivery system in Malkangiri has prompted Civil Society Groups to intervene and play an effective role to check the disaster. Child death is not new phenomena in Malkangiri.  Like other tribal districts, thousands of tribal children are dying every year in the district after being suffered from Malaria, dysentery, diarrhoea, stomach problem, pneumonia etc. and lack of proper treatment in Govt. hospitals. The information obtained  under RTI from the office of CDMO, Malkangiri on 3.11.12   has exposed  that  from 2007-08  to 2011-12, around 7400 children  have died due to contraction of  various diseases like  Epilepsy, ATI, LBW, Diarrhea, Ashthma, Fits, Burning, UND, Septicemia, Birth Asphyxia, Fever related ailments and Boll cancer etc.  The Govt. ‘s claim of child death  due to outbreak of Japanese Encephalitis disease  and later on consumption of Chakunda seed in  2016 is designed  to befool  the people and suppress the fact.  As per Govt. report out of 90 cases of child death (blood sample was tested), child death due to Japanese Encephalitis is in 30 cases only. So the reason of death of other children is not known to Govt.  So it is proved that the child death due to JE is not properly established by the State Govt.  As per media report, 136 children have died till 28.11.16. against 400 child death as per non-Govt. source.

In view of child death in Malkanagiri  due to Japanese Encephalitis in 2012, a Fact-Finding Team of  Right to Food Campaign, Odisha had visited   the district to ascertain the fact and tried  to find out the reason of  child death  from non-technical point of view.  The team had  come across  disastrous  implementation of ICDS and MDM programme, huge corruption and irregularities in various services, denial of health service, large number of malnourished children etc.

After reported child death in Malkangiri  in mass media,   a number of steps have  taken by  Civil Society Groups  to  study  the reason of the  death of the children, intervention of the Govt. , local situation,  socio-economic condition of the tribals,   consumption of food by the tribals,  health delivery system, implementation of food security programme etc.  Besides that,  they have also taken number of advocacy effort to fight it out at different level.  These are  as follows.

Date	Intervention
18th to 20th Oct. 2016	A four-member Fact-finding Team of Right to Food Campaign, Odisha  comprising  Pradip Pradhan, State Convener, Right to Food Campaign, Odisha and Member, Advisory Group of NHRC on Right to Food, Sri Ashok Patnaik, Advocate and RTI Activist, Sri Bikash Dandsena, Social Activist, Malkangiri, Sri Era Padiami, Tribal Activist, Malkangiri had made 3-day visit to the district, made in-depth study of the situation. The Report exposed  callous, insensitivity  of  district administration, disastrous health system,  failure of food security programme, bad governance, denial of nutritious food to the children etc.
20.10.16	A Press Meet was organised  in Malkangiri  district headquarter  and the  Fact-finding Report was shared with media.
21.10.16	A Memorandum along with Fact-finding Report   was presented to the Collector, Malkangiri
21.10.16	Compliant case was filed to National Human Rights Commission, New Delhi seeking intervention of the Commission as it is a case of denial of Right to life and food guaranteed under the Constitution.  The relief was sought for sending special enquiry team to Malkangiri and awarding compensation of Rs. 5 lakh to the families. NHRC has already issued notice to state Govt.
27.10.16	Complaint Case was filed to State Food Commission and Odisha State Commission for Child Rights seeking their intervention to check child death in Malkangiri.
5.11.16	Following  the  complaint,  State Food Commission   called a meeting  for  discussion on child death issue  and explored  the possibility of intervention   in Malkangiri
17.11.16	A state level workshop was organised to debate and discuss on above mentioned issues and finding out the scope for intervention of Civil Society in Malkangiri under aegis of Right to Food Campaign, Odisha and Human Rights Front, Odisha at Red Cross Bhawan, Bhubaneswar Around 80 participants   including representatives of NGOs, Civil Society Groups, retired Govt. officials, experts had participated in the discourse and shared their views with the participants. It was decided to submit a memorandum to Governor, Odisha and to observe black-day  in Malkangiri.
19.11.16	Civil Society Groups presented memorandum  to  Governor, Odisha  to exercise  his power  as  constitutional authority  for scheduled areas to constitute judicial commission  on Child Death,  review  all programme and issue direction to check   child death in Malkangiri.
19.11.16	The Odisha High Court  issued  notice to both State Govt.  and Central Govt.  and Collector, Malkangiri on Writ Petition Case No. 19919 of 2016  filed  by Sri Ashok Patnaik, advocate and RTI Activist of Malkangiri  along with two tribals.
21.11.16	A Black-Day  was observed in Malkangiri  and  protest Dharana was organised  in front of Collectorate office  condemning  failure of the State Govt.  to check child death and holding district administration responsible for it.

          

Pradip Pradhan

State Convener

Right to Food Campaign, Odisha

M-9937843482

Date- 28.11.16 

Memorandum submitted to Governor, Odisha on JE of Malkangiri district, Odisha

To

Dr. S.C. Jamir                                                                                                  Date- 19.11.16

Hon’ble Governor, Odisha

Raj Bhawan

Bhubaneswar

Sub- Memorandum on “Child Death in Malkangiri”

Respected Sir

In the backdrop of death of more than one hundred children in Malakangiri district due to outbreak of Japanese Encephalitis (?),  a state-level  consultation  of Civil Society Groups  was organised  at Red Cross Bhawan, Bhubaneswar on 17.11.16 to  debate and discourse  about  issues relating to incidence of child death  and explore the opportunity of  intervention of Civil Society  to find out  permanent solution to it in terms of checking  child death in the district.

The meeting started  with welcome address  by  Sri Manoj Jena, Human Rights Activist and Core-Committee Member of NGO Cell of NHRC   followed by   presentation of two  Fact-finding Reports presented  by Sri Pradip Pradhan, State  Convener, Right to Food Campaign, Odisha  and Member of Advisory Group of NHRC, and Sri Gouranga Mohapatra, Convener, Jana Swasthya Abhijan, Odisha Chapter  who  depicted  child death  due to malnutrition  and hunger  among  the tribal children.  after presentation,  the house engulfed  in debating  the incidence of child  death from various perspectives  and  citing  various reasons  such  age-old negligence and callousness of the administration,  huge corruption and irregularities in implementation of Govt. programme, absence of effective grievance redressal mechanism and monitoring mechanism at district level, deliberate attempt  to suppress information about magnitude of child malnutrition, inaccesability to  food security programme and denial of entitlement,  bad-implementation of food security programme,  huge food insecurity among the tribals, disastrous health situation, mal-administration, vacancy in the  posts in different offices including District Hospital, PHC and CHC etc.

The prominent members who   participated in the consultation  were  Sri Panchanan Kanungo, former Minister, Govt. of Odisha, Sri Rabi Das, Senior Journalist, Sri Pratap Sahu, Dalit Rights Activists Sri Ashok Mallik, Kalandi Mallik, Prof. Jantrana Parikhit, Madhumita Rath, Suresh Panigrahi, CPI(M), Social Activists like  Ashok Das, Mrs. Usharani Behera, Ranjit Swain, Meghna Kinnar, Sri Sudhir Sabat and Sri Ranjit Patnaik from CACL, Sri Akhand, Human Rights Activist, Chandranath Dani, Prakash Nayak, Health expert  and many others.

After deliberation, the house felt that it is state-sponsored murder of  children in the district  and  unanimously passed the  resolution expressing deep concern over child death   and condemned negligence, lackadaisical attitude and failure of the State Govt.  to check child death in the district. The house also agreed that the reason of the child death as cited by Govt.  does not attribute only health hazard rather  food insecurity and malnutrition among the children for years together.  The house also resolved   to appraise His Excellency to exercise his power as custodian of the tribals of Malkangiri coming under fifth schedule of the Constitution and take the following steps including direction to the State Govt. to check the innocent lives from grave disaster.

A.      Constitute Commission of Enquiry to find out the reason of child death in face of diversed  views  on it  and fix responsibility  for such holocaust.

B.      Appoint High-level expert Team  to review  the relevance  of  numerous  development programme, manner of implementation of food security programme, whether  the programme itself is defective or it is badly implemented  with time-bound manner. The recommendation of the team should be properly implemented.

C.      Multi-stakeholder Grievance Redressal mechanism to be developed to hear the grievance of the people and address it within time limits and fixing responsibility on the erring officials.

D.     As reported, thousands of the tribal children are still suffering from malnutrition in the district who are in red zone. Massive drive needs to be undertaken to identify these children and special nutrition programme to be launched to improve their health condition.

E.      Transparency and accountability to be enforced in the implementation of development project and all food security programme.

F.       The huge vacancy  in   different category of Govt. posts should be filled up on war-footing way  to revamp administrative mechanism  to render service effectively and making it reach out at door step of the people.

Thanking you

Yours sincerely

Pradip Pradhan

Manoj Jena

Madhumita Rath

Dr. Rina Roy

Sanjay Sahu

Bijalalaxmi Routray

Public Money mindlessly spent by Odisha Bureaucracy

An amount of Rs. 44 lakhs spent for Renovation of Residence office of Collector, Kalahandi, Odisha

Dear friends

Misuse of public money by Odisha bureaucracy is very common under Nabin Patnaik Govt. in Odisha.  They spend public money on their own wish and fancies for their luxury and comfort.  Few years back, Mrunalini Darswal, the then collector of Nuapara district had misused NREGA fund for construction of swimming pool in the Collector’s residence violating all Rules and regulations. There was high-level enquiry into it after complaint was filed. However, the enquiry was suppressed by the State Govt.

Since last few years, RTI has been used by RTI Activists across the state to bring to limelight the huge misuse of public money by Odisha bureaucrats who are at helm of affairs and dictate the term for renovation of their office and residence and other work. It has been found that when an officer joins in new post, he or she immediately starts renovating   his or her office mindlessly without bothering its requirement and last repair work done. The offices and residence of the officers get renovated time and again even twice and thrice in a year, when there is   transfer or new posting and change in allotment of quarter.    A few days back, I have exposed  how huge  amount of  Rs. 32 lakh  has been spent  for renovation of  office  of  Managing Director  of  IDCO.

  RTI Application was submitted to the PIO, office of the Collector, Kalahandi  seeking information  about renovation of  residence office of Collector from  2010-11 to 2015-16. The present Collector of Kalahandi is Dr. Brunda D. IAS. On 31.10.16, the Executive Engineer, Kalahandi (R&B) has provided the information that an amount of Rs. 44 lakhs has been spent   for renovation of residence office of Collector  within six years.  The details are as follows.

Year	Expenditure ( Rs. in lakh)
2010-11	15.00
2011-12	2.00
2012-13	10.89
2013-14	4.44
2014-15	2.90
2015-16	8.24

Pradip Pradhan

M-9937843482

Date- 8.11.16 

33 lakh rupees earmarked for interior Decoration of Managing Director’s office of IDCO

An amount of Rs. 33 lakh earmarked for interior Decoration of Managing Director’s office of IDCO

It  has become  very common practice  in State administration  that those  bureaucrats  who are at helm of  affairs  spend huge money mindlessly  and carelessly  for  their luxury and comfort. They spend huge money  for renovation of their latrine,  bathroom,  interior decoration of their office, bed room in their quarters, balcony  They hardly pay attention  that they are using  money from state  exchequer   funded  by the poor  tax payers  of Odisha  who  continues  to pay tax  without objection  at the cost of their live  and livelihood  even  suffering  from hunger and malnutrition.  

Getting information from reliable  sources  about misuse of huge public money  by Managing Director, IDCO in name of renovation of his office  which  was not at all required, RTI Application  was submitted to the PIO, office of IDCO, Govt. of Odisha undertaking  seeking  information  about  details of expenditure made  for renovation  of office of  Managing Director, IDCO, Bhubaneswar  from 2009-10 to 2016-17.  The PIO on dated 24.10.16 has supplied the following information.

1.   From 2009-10 to 2015-16, no Managing Director or Chairman-cum-Managing Director has spent a single pie for renovation of their office. They were high-profile bureaucrats like Priyabrata Patnaik, CMD (25.1.10 to 22.12.11), Sri Pradeep Kumar Jena, CMD, (17.12.11 to 22.12.12).

2.   When Sri Sanjay Kumar Singh joined as Managing Director, IDCO on 30.11.15, he moved the proposal for renovation of the office.  Accordingly a proposal was made with estimated amount of Rs. 32, 82,900.00 for renovation of MD’s office and conference at IDCO tower, Bhubaneswar.   The total amount of Rs. 25, 33,433.00 has been spent till yet.

Pradip Pradhan

M-9937843482

Date- 2.11.16