Discretionary Quota in Odisha and CAG Report

 Allotment of Plot under Discretionary Quota (DQ), extracts from CAG Report

Every day, mass media carries news about notice issued to different  people by BDA, CDA and Odisha State Housing Board  for return of land allotted  under Discretionary Quota  and multiple allotments. But these authorities  are to  issue  notice  to  important political people  and bureaucrats like Sri Tarun Kanti Mishra, former Chief Secretary, U.N. Behera, Development Commissioner, Sri Bijay Sharma, Addl. DG, Police, Sri Nikunja Dhal, IAS, Sri Debi Prasad Mishra, Minister, Sri Aswani Kumar vaishnav, IAS, Sri Vishal Kumar Dev, IAS, Sri Pranab Balabantaray, MLA, Kalpataru Das, MP, Rajya Sabha, R.K.Sharma, IAS and many  others.

Vacant plots allotted under Discretionary Quota arbitrarily by BDA

Sl.	Name  of allottee	Plot No ( 2400 Sq.ft. each)
Prachi Enclave Plotted Scheme  Phase-II
1	Anusuya Mishra, W/O- Debi Prasad Mishra, Minister  for School  and Mass Education	236
2	Aswani Kumar Vaishnav	242
3	Gourang Kinkar Das, former Vice Chancellor, Utkal University  ( transferred to Rashmi Das)	186
4	Pratap Kumar Samal	246-C
5	Pritam Mohapatra	238
6	Ravi Kumar Sahani and Punam Sahani	187
Prachi Enclave Plotted Scheme  Phase-1
7	Babita Sar	126
8	Pratima Das, W/O- Kalpataru Das	42-C
9	Raj Kumar Sharma, IAS	130-C
10	Rajaram Satapathy, Journalist	38
11	Satyajit Mohanty	73-C
12	Sobhamayee Dehury, transferred to Narmadha Pradhan	109
13	Srimoy Kar, Journalist	21
14	Vishal Kumar Dev, IAS	62 A

CAG Report  has also  brought  to  notice  huge scam  and irregularities    in allotment  of plot/ land  to  different  people.    While auditing land / plot allotment made by BDA, CDA and GA, CAG   has mentioned in its audit report that neither the provision for DQ allotment of plots / houses existed in the Act / Rules or any such instruction issued by the Government. Individual brochures of housing schemes of DAs contained provisions for allotment of plots/ houses under DQ of the Chairperson of the concerned DA ( Development Authority)   which ranged between five per cent to ten per cent of the total assets offered under the schemes. However, no eligibility criteria for identification of allottees eligible under DQ had been specified by the DAs in general or in the individual brochure.  

CAG has made audit scrutiny in the 10 test checked housing schemes and exposed huge irregularities  in these schemes.  These are  as follows.

A. Identification of allottees under DQ was arbitrary as the criteria for the same were not specified and applications for allotment under DQ were made on plain paper without any supporting documents such as affidavit regarding non-ownership of land in the concerned DA, as required in the terms and conditions of the brochure for housing schemes.

B.  In case of Udaygiri Vihar Housing Scheme launched for MIG/ LIG houses in 2002, norms regarding income were relaxed (April 2003) for allotment of six assets valued at ` 35.94 lakh out of 20 assets allotted under the DQ.

C.  In eight housing schemes of Bhubaneswar Development Authority, out of 249 applications for allotment of assets under DQ, 129 applicants were allotted assets. It was observed that there was no clear pre-defined criterion for such allotment, thus making the allotment under DQ completely arbitrary and non-transparent.

D. In case of Prachi Enclave Phase–II (BDA), provisional allotment of eight assets worth ` 28.80 lakh was made under DQ to eight individuals in November 2001 before launching the scheme in September 2002, making the allotment process non transparent.

E. In four cases in Bhubaneswar Development Authority, assets worth ` 17.42 lakh were allotted to persons who had earlier also been allotted assets under DQ and transferred one of the assets to third party indicating that the allotment made under DQ was for speculation, rather than for residential purpose.

F. Nine persons already allotted assets under DQ, were allotted another asset each by Bhubaneswar Development Authority either under discretionary or general quota in their names or in the names of their spouses.

G. Thus, due to non formulation of clear guidelines and criteria for identification of  allottees under DQ and lack of subsequent monitoring regarding actual usage of such plots/ buildings, the process of allotment under DQ lacked transparency.

Pradip Pradhan, M-9937843482

Date- 12.7.15 

Protesting against secrecy maintained in appointment of OIC

Open Invitation to Join in

Mass Dharana protesting against secrecy maintained by State Government in appointment of   Information Commissioners in Odisha

Venue- Lower PMG, Bhubaneswar, Date-16.7.15

Dear friends

As aware you are, on 16.5.2015, Sri Narasingha Mishra  while coming out of  Selection Committee Meeting  held under Chairmanship of Chief Minister  for nominating names for the post of State Information Commissioner, said to the Media that  the selection  has been made arbitrarily  and  the people nominated   do not deserve to be Information Commissioner.  Similarly, on 18^th May,  hundreds of RTI Activists and  Civil Society leaders assembled together  at Raj Bhawan and  submitted memorandum to Governor, Odisha  not to appoint the  arbitrarily and politically motivated selected  candidates in the post of the Information Commission.  It needs to be mentioned here that since last ten years, RTI Activists of the state have been demanding before the Govt.  to follow the transparent procedure in the appointment of  Information Commission. 

In our pursuit to know about details of procedure   followed for the selection and appointment of Information Commissioner, we the RTI Activists filed series of RTI Applications to the PIO, Dept. of Information and Public Relations just after the selection Committee meeting is over. Though two months have passed, the PIO has neither supplied the information nor responded RTI Applications.

So, it is clear that the State Government has followed fraudulent means and manipulated the procedure to selection their political stooges for the post of Information Commissioners.  It deserves  to be mentioned here that  while adjudication the Writ Petition No. 210/2012  and Review Petition No. 2309/2012, the Supreme Court has given direction to both Central Govt. and State Govt.  that  the Committees under Sections 12(3) and 15(3) of the Act while making recommendations to the President or to the Governor, as the case may be, for appointment of Chief Information Commissioner and Information Commissioners must mention against the name of each candidate recommended, the facts to indicate his eminence in public life, his knowledge in the particular field and his experience in the particular field and these facts must be accessible to the citizens as part of their right to information under the Act after the appointment is made.”

Since last ten years, this Govt. has taken every step not only to dilute the RTI Act but also to make office of Information Commission dysfunctional by appointing useless people as Information Commissioners.  Odisha RTI Rules, 2005 termed as absurd, anti-people and illegitimate is still in practice and standing as biggest stumbling block for the people to exercise their right to access the information under RTI Act.

So, in this context, Mass Dharana of RTI Activists and Civil Society leaders under the banner of Odisha Soochana Adhikar Abhijan and other Civil Society Organisations   is being organised at Lower PMG, Bhubaneswar on 16.7.15 at 10 AM demanding the information  about selection and appointment of Information Commissioners  to be put in public domain  and  withdrawal of anti-people Odisha RTI Rules, 2005. A memorandum will be submitted to Governor, Odisha appraising him about the arbitrarily procedure followed  for appointing  the Information Commissioners  which is illegal under RTI Act and seeking direction to Govt. to put all information  in public domain and  make it accessible under RTI Act. So that,  true Character of the State Govt.  will be exposed before the people of Odisha.

Pradip Pradhan

State Convener, Odisha Soochana Adhikar Abhijan

M-9937843482

Date-11.7.15

Huge land allotted to KIIT in Bhubaneswar at throw away price, Bulletin-2

Huge land allotted to KIIT in Bhubaneswar at throw away price causing crores of revenue loss to state exhequer , exposed through RTI

All of you might be aware about CAG expose about illegalities and irregularities committed by State Govt. in respect of allotment of land to KIIT and other Institutions in Bhubaneswar area. CAG has take up some test cases, examined its allotment procedure and exposed the nexus of state bureaucracy and Sri Achyut Samant, founder of KIIT in matter of allotment of land to KIIT at throwaway price. To know more about land allotted to KIIT in Chandaka Industrial area, Bhubaneswar RTI application was submitted to the PIO, Office of IDCO, Bhubaneswar on 22.9.14. The PIO on dated 24.10.14 has provided the information which as follows.

Sl.	Name of Institution or business house	IDCO plot No.	Area allotted	Date of allotment	Revenue received by IDCO ( in Rs. )
1	KIIT, Bhubaneswar	20/A	2.000	10.4.2000	1,12,00,000.00
2	Do	31	1.550	16.2.2002	54,25,000.00
3	DO	12/C	0.989	3.12.2003	33,41,500.00
4	DO	44	4.278	14.5.2004	94,11,600.00
5	DO	65 &20B	5.913	29.4.2005	1,60,21,800.00
6	DO	40/1	0.200	28.3.2006	5,00,000.00
7	DO	Excess land	1.905	17.7.2009	90,86,788.00
8	DO	238,230,22/A/2,45,41/E, 92,68/A,68/B,91/A & 91/B	4.683	17.7.2009	3,40,10,288.00
9	DO	102,M/4 to M/19, M/19/1, M/19/2, N/1 to N/1/C, N/2/1	14.000	25.7.14	15,75,00,000.00
10	DO	25	6.883	25.2.2004	1,25,34,155.00
11	DO	24 &12/A	3.896	29.4.2005	1,05,56,560.00
12	DO	A/8 & 9	0.987	30.5.2009	71,80,425.00
13	DO	44/, D & 44/E	3.214	10.6.2009	70,70,800.00
14	DO	16/D	1.000	14.4.2014	1,12,50,000.00
		Total	51.498		29,50,88,916.00
		Twenty Nine crores fifty lakh eighty eight thousands nine hundred sixteen

Comments

A.        Total land allotted to KIIT in only Chandaka Industrial area  is 51.498 acre  with payment of Rs. 29,50,88,916.00.

B.        This said quantity of land has been allotted to KIIT only in Chadaka Industrial area. Apart from that, KIIT has been allotted land by IDCO in other areas like Patia in Bhubaeswar.

C.        In 2006, KIIT has also received   26.970 acre of land from GA Dept. at the cost of Rs.6.76 crores (premium amount per acre per land fixed by Govt. is Rs. 25 lakh) . But during that time DSR (District Sub-Registrar) value of land was 1.5 crore per acre. By  allotting this land to KIIT at lowest premium value , the State Govt.  has incurred revenue loss of Rs.33.70 crores.

D.     The cost of payment per acre  of land allotted to KIIT is just Rs. 57,30,104.

E.      The DSR value (Govt. cost) of that land is more than 2 to 4 crores per acre of land from 2004 to 2014.

F.       During 1998 to 2009, the premium value of land was not revised by the Govt.

G.     CAG  Audit Report has pointed out that the Govt. has incurred revenue loss of more than  Rs. 250 crores  due to irregularities and undue benefit given to KIIT.

H.     Total of 14 acre of land allotted to KIIT on 25.7.14 is totally illegal despite objection  given by CAG. The said land was illegally encroached by KIIT . Despite this issue being raised by CAG report which was Submitted to Govt.  in January 2014, the IDCO allotted the land through passing a resolution in High-level Land allotment Committee presided by Sri Jugal   Mohapatra, the then Chief Secretary of Odisha.

( NB- It was circulated on 7.11.14 and reproduced  on 7.7.15) 

Pradip Pradhan, M-9937843482