Status of Action Taken on Recommendation of Task Force Report on
Land Scam in Odisha
Inquiry into Land
Scam since 3 and half years is still
farce and eye-wash exercise and
designed to delay and cover up the scam by GA Department , BDA, CDA, Odisha State
Housing Board and State Vigilance , exposed under RTI
White Paper on
“Inquiry into Land Scam and Action Taken So far “to be produced in the Coming
Assembly session and inquiry into land
scam should be handed over CBI, demanded by Civil Society
1.In
view of CAG report about alleged irregularities in allotment of land/houses/flats by
BhubaneswarDevelopment Authority(BDA), Cuttack Development Authority (CDA),Odisha State Housing Board (OSHB) and General Administration (GA) Department
and IDCO and subsequent demand by Opposition parties and Civil Society for CBI inquiry, the State
Government 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 samefamily and allotment under discretionary quota to ineligible
persons from 1995 to 2014 and submit its report within 4 months.
2.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.
3.After
considering the recommendations, the cabinet inter alia has directed that the modalities of implementation of
the report would be worked out in consultation with the Law department and the
Advocate General within 90 days. On 6.5.15, after due consultation, the
Govt. finalized Modalities for implementation of the recommendation of
the Task Force.
4.
The Chief Secretary has conducted several times the review meeting regarding progress
and implementation of the recommendation of Task Force on multiple allotments
of plots/houses/flats at Bhubaneswar and Cuttack.
5.In order to study the
progress of Action taken by BDA, CDA, OSHB, Department of GA and Finance, RTI
Application was filed to all the offices to get the information. All the PIOs
have supplied the information within the month of April to June, 2018. The details of information provided by
them are mentioned below.
5.A.
Status of Inquiry by Bhubaneswar Development
Authority
i.732
nos. of Show-cause Notices relating to Discretionary Quota Allotments have been
served to original allotteee by BDA. Out of it, 36 nos of notices returned
unserved and pending for paper publications. 653 no. of Show cause replies received has
been kept for hearing by the officers
to be appointed by Government. Three
writ petition cases have been filed by the allottees after receipt of
show-cause notice.
ii.
Show cause notices issued to 148
allottees under category of multiple allotments.
Out of which 15 notices have been returned un-served. 11 no. of allotments have
been cancelled. 108 no. of allottees have responded to Show cause
notice and kept for hearing. 2 of them
have filed case in High Court.
iii.
DSP( Vigilance) , Cuttack was handed over 332 nos. of Original Allotment files and all available general files of different
schemes.
iv.
Name of 11 persons
whose allotment has been
cancelled by BDA and status of its cancellation
|
Name of
persons
|
Plot/flat allotted
|
Status
of cancellation
|
|
Renubala Sethi
|
House
No, MIG-71, Ananta Vihar Housing Scheme
|
It has been cancelled. Possession has not yet been handed over/ taken over
|
|
Pranab Balabantaray
|
Flat No. E-09, Netaji Subhas Enclave
|
Allotment has been cancelled. Possession has been taken
over on 27.10.14
|
|
Babita Mishra
|
Plot No. 149, Prachi Enclave
|
Allotment has been
cancelled and the land is in
possession of BDA
|
|
Anita Patra
|
House No. MIG-71, Ananta Vihar Ph-III
|
Allotment has been
cancelled
|
|
Kaplana Padhi
|
HIG-26, 01-02 Housing Scheme
|
Allotment has been cancelled. Possession has not been handed
over / taken over till date
|
|
Meera Dutta
|
House No. HIG -34,
01-02 Housing Scheme
|
It has been cancelled. But it is under
sub-judice before the Hon’ble High Court in W.P.( C) No. 23952/14.
|
|
Bipin Bihari Singh
|
K9-B-352 ,
Kalinga Nagar PDS
|
It has been cancelled. But no information supplied whether possession has been handed over to
BDA
|
|
Dharitri Dwibedy
|
K9-B-39,
Kalinga Nagar PDS
|
It has been cancelled. But no information supplied whether possession has been handed over to
BDA
|
|
Bibekananda Panda
|
K4-1306,
Kalinga Nagar PDS
|
It has been cancelled. But no information supplied whether possession has been handed over to
BDA
|
|
Aditya Patnaik
|
K8-489,
Kalinga
Nagar PDS
|
It has been cancelled. But no information supplied whether possession has been handed over to
BDA
|
5.B. Status of Inquiry by Cuttack Development Authority,Cuttack
i. As per information supplied
under RTI dated 18.6.18, CDA provided a list of 1091
allottees who have been issued show-cause notice in
August 2016 on the ground of false affidavit, multiple allotments and land
allotted under Discretionary quota.
ii. CDA has provided list of
12 nos of plots cancelled on ground of multiple allotment. But possession of plots have not been taken over.
iii. CDA has not yet started hearing of the response of Show-cause
notice issued to allottees.
5.C. Status of Inquiry by Odisha State Housing
Board, Bhubaneswar
i.
Out of 67 Discretionary
Quota allotment, OSHB issued show cause notice to 66 persons except one whose allotment
was cancelled for other reasons. Not a single
plot has been cancelled by OSHB till yet.
ii.Out
of 37 multiple allotment cases, 25
persons have been issued show-cause
notice and 12 allottees were not issued show cause
as allotment was made made as per schematic provision.
iii. 15 cases have been referred to State Vigilance for inquiry.
iv. Three allottees have applied to OSHB for return of their land.
They are Sajjal Kumar Moulick,
Pranab Balabantaray and Snigdharani Sahu. It is very interesting to
note that though they have applied to return the land, OSHB
has not taken any steps to
recover land from them.
5.D. Inquiry by General Administration Department
i. The modalities issued by GA Dept. for implementing recommendation of Task Force
( Para-IV) stipulates that GA Department
which is under Chief Minister should
take immediate steps for review and update the list of allottees who availed
the irregular benefit of
more than one allotment of land /flat/
house against specific schematic
provision on the basis of allotment made prior to 1.1.1995. This process should be completed within a period
of 3 months. But GA Department has not
yet prepared this list of
allotment prior to 1.1.1995. it
deserves to be mentioned here that
allotment of 3000 plots was made in 1991 and 1992 under plotted Scheme “ Allotment of Residential Plots in new colonies within
Bhubaneswar Municipality Area, 1989”. The list
of 3000 allottees was not handed over to Task Force Committee despite their several requests. Even this
information is also not
provided under RTI Act. As because there is huge corruption and irregularities in
allotment of the plots under the said scheme, the GA Department is not
deliberately disclosing the list of 3000 allottees in public domain.
5.E. Status of Inquiry
by Director, Vigilance, Cuttack
As the office of Director, Vigilance has been kept
from the purview of RTI Act, we
could not gather any information from the Vigilance Department. But as
per the information supplied by BDA on 17.5.2018, it was found that Vigilance had been handed over 332
no. of allotment files for inquiry and so far 4 no. of cases have been instituted by Vigilance
Cell, Cuttack. Similarly, as per
information obtained from OSHB on 26.5.2016,
15 no. of allotment cases have
been referred to State vigilance for
inquiry. But no progress
has been developed by State Vigilance in respect
of inquiry into allotment of
plots/land/flats.
5.F. Status of Special Audit by Finance Department
The Modalities prepared by Govt. for implementation of the recommendations
of the Task Force stipulates ( Para – vii) that
the Finance Department should
conduct special audit in respect of
the left out cases of multiple
allotments as recommended by
Task Force in Para 48(2) and to
find out the actual number of discretionary allotment made after 1.1.1995 as recommended in Para
48 (5) of the Task Force and also of
allotment made after 1.1.1995 as has been recommended in para 48 ( c) and only after the special audit is
completed on all respected , the
modalities for taking action against them
has to be prepared as per law. As per
information supplied under RTI on 24.1.18, Special audit
Team was constituted as per
the letter No. 29987/F dt.
21.11.2015. The Finance Deptt. have
completed this special audit and the same report has been submitted to the GA Dept. for necessary
action at their end. It is disheartening to
note that though
special audit Report has
been submitted , Chief Minister has not taken any steps for years
together.
Our demand
In view of above-mentioned information and analysis, we are of the
view that the State Government and State Vigilance has no interest to
conduct inquiry into land
scam but trying hard
to cover it up by making delay of inquiry and in the name of inquiry. We do not
see any tangible achievement
in respect of inquiry by any authority including State
Vigilance and General
Administration Department which comes
under control of Chief Minister. The
Special audit Report of Finance Department which is gathering dust in the office of Chief Minister must
be put in public domain.
So, we demand that
as the Govt. precariously
failed to conduct the inquiry successfully,
it should be handed over to CBI
for investigation. We also demand
that a White Paper on Inquiry into Land Scam must be presented in the
coming assembly session.
Pradip
Pradhan
State
Convener
Odisha Soochana Adhikar Abhijan
M-9937843482
Date- 6.8.18
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