Complaint under Section 37 (4)(c) of Odisha Lokayukta Act 2014
To Date- 26.7.21
His Excellency Prof. Ganeshi Lal
Hon’ble Governor, Odisha
Raj Bhawan, Bhubaneswar
Sub- Seeking action against Chairman Odisha Lokayukta Justice Ajit Singh under Section 37 (4)(c) of Odisha Lokayukta Act, 2014
Ref: Order of Odisha Lokayukta No. LY- 1027/2020 dated 9.7.21 issued by a Lokayukta Bench comprising Justice Ajit Singh Chairperson and Sri Debabrata Swain, Member.
Esteemed Sir,
I, Sri Sarbeswar Behura , RTI Activist and anti-corruption crusader , faced bomb attack due to my fight against corruption of powerful people would like to draw attention of your august office the following complaint and take action deemed proper by way of exercising your power under Section 37( (4) (c ) of the said Act-
1. In order to apprise your august office on the rationale of the above complaint I beg to narrate a summary of the facts and circumstances that made us to file it before your esteemed authority and I fervently hope that your august office shall pass an appropriate order in the matter to meet the ends of justice and probity.
2. On 28th night of August, 20, Electronics media aired breaking news that the Irrigation Embankment Road from NH-5 ( Gokarneswar ) to Budhalingam Majhipada Road ( length-20 kms) along embankment of Kelua river under Jajpur district got destroyed at Niraghat by explosion of dynamites and impression was given that due to heavy flow of flood water , the embankment got cracked and damaged and damaged 4000 hect. of paddy. After few hours , the statement of the then District Collector, Jajpur and then Chief Secretary came out that this damage was man-made and destroyed by miscreants. On 29.8.21, the Deputy Executive Engineer, Jaraka Irrigation Division, Jaraka filed FIR in Dharmashala Police station for inquiry into the incident.
3. Alleging of destruction of embankment, a conspiracy to cover up huge irregularities and corruption in construction of the road, I filed complaint dt. 7.9.20 before Lokayukta, Odisha seeking inquiry into destruction of embankment and punish the people responsible for it.
4. My allegation was following information obtained under RTI Act. That, this project was sanctioned in 2016 by the office of the Executive Engineer, R&B, Panikoili Division with Agreement No. 21 P with an estimated amount of Rs. 21.99 crores. Sri Balakrustan Mohanty, Contractor was entrusted to execute the work and complete it by 30.4.2018. But, the local MLA Sri Pranab Balabantaray and Sri Naren Jena, Junior Engineer close relation of MLA used local hooligans to create trouble for the Contractors for which he could not start the work. The work got delayed for two years and the project cost revised to Rs. 24.47 crore. Huge corruption and misappropriation of fund resulted in low quality of work and weak embankment .
5. In order to suppress low quality of work, then then Tahasildar, Dharmashala and then Executive Engineer, R&B, Panikoili Division put a check post at entry side of embankment in 2020 in order to check movement of big vehicles apprehending that it may damage embankment taking plea that this check post was put at the instruction of Collector, Jajpur which was false , confirmed as per RTI Reply given by the office of Collector, Jajpur which stated that no such had been issued to Tahasildar, Dharmashala.
6. Taking cognizance of the complaint ( registered –LY- 1027/20) , Lokayukta Bench comprising Chairman Justice Ajit Singh and Sri Debabrata Swain, Member issued notice on to Chief Engineer, works, Sri Pranab Balabantaray, MLA, Executive Engineer, R&B, Panikoili to reply on above-mentioned allegation.
7. After considering their respective submissions, on 8.1.21, the Lokayukta ordered to state Vigilance for inquiry into complaints filed by Sarbeswar Behura.
8. On 7.7.21, the Director of State Vigilance submitted preliminary report before Lokayukta, Odisha.
9. Considering the report, Lokayukta Stated that the allegation of corruption made in the complaint regarding use of substandard material in the construction work of embankment have been found to be false and closed the case on 9.7.21.
10. During hearing of the case, when I sought the inquiry report of State Vigilance, the Lokayukta bench denied to share the copy of the inquiry report on the ground that there is no such provision for sharing of the report to complainant in Odisha Lokayukta Act, 2014.
11. It deserves to mention here that during inquiry conducted by Vigilance, I had presented some documents obtained under RTI from the office of Executive Engineer, R&B, Panikioli dt. 28.9.20 - (A) the office of Executive Engineer, R&B, Panikoili had deducted Rs. 1.52 crore from the final bill of Contractor towards royalty against use of sand, stone and Morum . In fact, this royalty should be deposited in the office of Tahasildar, Dharmashala at the time of lift of said materials. As not a single material has been lifted and used in the embankment, the contractor had not deposited the said royalty amount in the office of Tahasildar, Dharmashala and misappropriated the said money. (B) As the construction work was going on the revised estimated budget of Rs. 24.47 crore, the office of Executive Engineer , R &B, sanctioned F 2 work worth Rs. 63.12 lakhs ( dividing work into 12 sanctioning Rs. 3 to 4 lakh for each work) to Lalita Mohanty of Puri district , a lady which is no way related to this work without any tender. This total amount was misappropriated as there was no such provision for F-2 work when the work was going on. (C) this work was primarily was handed over to Batakrustan Mohanty , contractor who could not undertake the work and his son Subash Mohanty obtaining power of attorney started the work and could not progress. He engaged another contractor Sangram keshari Jena of Kendrapara to finish the work. But the Vigilance during inquiry did not take into consideration the above documents submitted by me.
12. When I raised these issues that has not been taken into consideration by Vigilance, Odisha , Lokayukta did not listen anything and arbitrarily closed the case.
In view of the facts and circumstances narrated above, we are of the view that Justice Sri Ajit Singh, Chairperson, Lokayukta has patently failed to discharge his statutory obligations as required of him. We therefore pray before your Excellency Sir to order an action deemed proper against Justice Sri Ajit Singh Chairman Lokayukta, Odisha on the ground of mental infirmity in exercise of the powers vested in Governor Odish under Section 37(4)(c) and simultaneously to pass another Order deemed appropriate, in the capacity of Executive Head of the State under Article 154(1) of Constitution, for institution of an impartial and comprehensive enquiry covering all the parties mentioned in our Complaint and exploring all angles thereto, so as to unearth the factors and actors responsible for destruction of embankment and corruption involved in it .
Yours sincerely
Sarbeswar Behura
At-Saroi, Post-Haridaspur
Dist-Jajpur
M- 9437459949
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