Rupeed Four Crores pending against Unauthorised Occupants

Four Crores pending against Unauthorised Occupants of Govt. quarters in Bhubaneswar, Capital of Odisha

Housing is a major problem in Bhubaneswar. In order to ensure housing of its employees, the State Govt.  has made a policy of providing Govt. quarters  to  accommodate all category of officers  employees  in the capital.  But due to absence of adequate quarters, many Govt. employees are not getting quarters, though they are entitled to get it. But astonishingly, a large number of retired Govt. employees have occupied Govt.  quarters unauthorisedly and illegally   for years together due to their nexus with top officials causing huge revenue loss to state exchequer.  The State Govt. has not taken any steps to vacate the quarters.

On 22.6.17, I had filed RTI Application to the PIO, Dept. of GA & PG( Rent), Govt. of Odisha  seeking  information about details of  quarters unauthorisedly occupied  by  ex-Govt. employees, former MLAs, Individuals, Govt. employees  and pending of rent amount  against them.  On 3.7.17, the PIO has provided the following information.

1.       Total No. of 181 of ex-employees, officers and Govt. employees have illegally occupied Govt. quarters in Bhubaneswar. Total amount of 4,07,43,524.00 of  quarter rent   is pending against them.   

2.       Most of the ex-Govt employees, though they have got retired have been unauthorisedly occupying Govt. quarters since 2010 without paying a singly pie towards rent of Quarter.

3.       3. Most of the ex- employees who have illegally occupied  Govt. quarters are   officers in the rank of Section officer, Deputy Director,  under secretary, additional secretary, , Zamadar, police officers, Junior clerck, Pump driver, peon etc.

4.       Prominent ex-employees and officers who have occupied Govt. quarters are as follows.

Name	Details of quarters			Date of Cancellation	Amount pending (Rs.)
	Qr.No.	Type	Unit
Manguli Ch. Kissan, Retd. F.A. & C.A.O. & PG ( Arbo), Dept.	6	B	N.A.	2014	5,54,427.00
Govinda Ch. Mohanty, Retd. S.O., Home Department	2/4	VA	II	1.2.2000	12,60,412.00
Srikanta Kabi, Retd. Addl. Secretary, Finance Dept.	29	4RF	IX	1.8.2015	2,71,238.00
Sadanamda Kuar, PA., Director of Ground Water Survey and Inv	7/2	D	VIII	1.10.2011	5,81,337.00
Ramesh Ch. Rout, Retd. Sr. Asst. Chief Engineer, RWSS, Bhubaneswar
Santanu Kumar Mohanty, Retd. Additional Secretary, Cooperation Dept.	4/1	4R	III	1.3.2011	3,79,754.00
Nrusingha Charan Rout, OFS (SB), Retd. Chief Accounts officer, BMC, Bhubaeswar	8/4	VA	II	1.5.2012	5,05,507.00
Smt. Kokila Naik, retd. Sweeper, G.A.  Dept.	19	G	VIII	2013	1,17,052.00
Prafulla Kumar Muni, Retd. Section Officer,  G.A. (Rent) Dept.	47/2	IVA	II	2013	2,50,982.00
Subash Ch. Mallik, Retd. Desk Officer, G.A. Dept.	7/7	2RAF	K.A.	2012	2,44,421.00
Batakrustan Chinra, Retd. Medical officer, Ayurvedic Hospital, Bhubaneswar	104	D	M.A.	1.6.2009	8,15,506.00
Khestrabasi Prusty, Retd. D.O., R&DM Department	39/4	IVB	III	1.4.2010	5,07,046.00
Sankar Mallick, Retd. Deputy Secretary, PR Dept	18/2	IVA	II	2016	1,19,844.00
Laxmidhar Nayak, retd. Asst. CEO-cum- Under Secretary, Home (election) Dept.	142	IVR	VI	2011	4,16,689.00
Jagannath Sethy, Retd. E.O. O/O-Director of Secondary Education, Bhubaneswar	74	E	VIII	1.6.11	4,22,778.00
Smt. Manjulata Mohanty, Retd. Asst. Teacher, D.I.of School, Bhubaneswar	17/1	2RA(F)	IX	1.10.2009	3,47,935.00
Bubhuti Bhusan Das, Retd. Asst. Teacher, D.I.of School, Bhubaneswar	38	E	N.A.	1.9.2012	3,33,077.00
Prasant Kumar Kanungo, retd. Sr. Steno, O/O Director of Export  promotion and Marketing, Bhubaneswar	13	E	VIII	1.1.2014	2,35,835.00
Manoj Kumar Nayak, Retd. Desk Officer, Dept. of Higher education	42/4	E	IX(F)	30.6.2012	3,49,035.00
Rama Sankar Behera, Retd. Dy-cum-Dy. Secretary, I and PR Dept.	5/1	D	IX	1.6.2014	2,12,658.00

5.       .  List of Ex-MLAs who are in unauthorised  occupation of Govt. quarters   

Sl. No.	Name	Quarter Details			Date of Cancellation	Amount pending ( Rs.)
		No.	Type	Unit
1	Surendra Nayak, Ex-MLA,	4	VIIIMR	V	4.7.2014	7,89,509.00
2	Smt. Sarojini Hembram, Ex-MLA	4	VIMR	VI	28.4.2014	9307.00
3	Pradeepta Ku. Nayak	6/3	MLA D/S	IV	29.5.2009	7,96,998.00
4	Rama h. Hansda, Ex-MLA	12/2	MLA D/S	IV	31.5.2014	2,98,638.00
5	Rajenda Dolkia, Ex-MLA	16/3	MLA D/S	IV	31.5.2014	33,148.00
6	Pratap Ch. Sarangi, Ex-MLA	7/2	MLA(F)	IV	31.5.2014	2,98,398.00

6.       List of quarters in Bhubaneswar which has been illegally and unauthorisedly occupied by the Individuals.

Sl. No.	Name	Quarter Details			Date of Cancellation	Amount pending ( Rs.)
		No.	Type	Unit
1	Family members  of Late P.R.Shastry, Ex- Special Correspondent, Odisha Times	38/3	IV	1	2012	,86,910.00
2	Family members of late R.N.Mohanty, Ex-Freelance Journalist	3/2	VIDS	II	2011	4,20,935.00
3	Family Member of Late Barendra  Krustan Dhal, Ex-orrespondent, AAJ Kal	11/4	VA	II	2016	16,544.00

7.       Total no. of 66  officers  and employees  who have been transferred  to other  districts   but  still   unauthorisedly  occupying Govt. quarters   in Bhubaneswar  without paying  rent for years together causing revenue loss of  Rs. 45 lakhs .  Few of them are as follows.

Sl. No.	Name	Quarter Details			Date of Cancellation	Amount pending ( Rs.)
		No.	Type	Unit
1	Akshaya Mohanty, OAS(SB), Ex-Dy. Secretary, Lavour and Employment Deptt. Govt. of Odisha	70	C	VIII	1.4.2012	,64,706.00
2	Dillip Kumar Mohanty, Ex-Inspector, office of SP, Khurda	56	D	NA	28.7.2002	11,80,750.00
3	Dhiren Kumar Patnaik,  Ex-ASI of Police, S.P. Khurda	225	F	NA	1.4.2008	4,24,410.00
4	Sarat Ch.Patra, Ex-S.I. Of police, O/O-SP, Khurda	2	2RB	IX	1.4.2008	6,15,405.00
5	Nanda Kishor Swain, Ex-Constable, 0/O- SP, Khurda	7/6	T	CRP	1.4.2008	4,24,410.00
6	Gourishankar Das, D.S.P., O/o- S.P., Khurda	9/3	D2	SSA	1.4.2008	8,70,135.00
7	Jogendra Badjena, O/o-SP, khurda	10/5	2RA	VIII	1.4.2008	4,24,410.00
8	Pradipta Kumar Sahani, Ex-Asst. Commissioner of Police, Police Commissionerate	15/3	VA	II	20.8.2012	4,72,359.00
9	Ramanath Mishra, Ex-Deputy  Controller, Civil Defence	3/5	3RF	KA	1.6.2014	7,45,990.00
10	Sarat Kumar Swain, ex- FPSI, Police Commissionerate	12/2	3RF	KA	2.10.2013	3,64,628.00
11	Rabi Sankar Behera, Ex-Jr. Clerck, 0/0  the Deputy Controller, Civil Defence, BBSR	71	2RA	IX	2.9.2000	6,17,547.00
12	Ranjit Majhi, ex- Addl. Commercial Tax Officer, Koraput	12/3	E	IX	1.6.2011	4,40,182.00
13	Smt. Snehanjali Patnaik, Ex-Hindi Teacher, Govt. Boys High School, Unit-VIII, BBSR	56/5	2RBF	IX	8.1.2006	7,08,584.00
14	Trinath Patel, Ex- DSP, Vigilance, Bhubaneswar Division, BBSR	4/2	VIB	III	8.1.2016	1,32,592.00
15	Nrupa Dandsena, Ex- ACP, Police Commissionerate, Bhubaneswar	36	D	NA	9.5.2014	3,06,619.00
16	Prafulla Kumar Singh, Ex-Asst. Comdt. OSAP 7TH Bn. Bhubaneswar	116	D	MA	20.11.16	57,445.00

Pradip Pradhan, M-9937843482

Date- 8.7.17  

Govt. of Odisha maintains utmost secrecy on Ghangapatna Land Scam

 Govt.  of Odisha maintains utmost secrecy on Ghangapatna Land Scam, Information Commission directs  Tahasildar, Bhubaneswar  to produce the information within 7 days

Dear friends

In a significant development, on 14.7.17., Mrs. Sashi Prava Bindhani, State Information Commissioner directed to Tahasildar, Bhubaneswar to produce all the information about Ghangapatna land to the Appellant within 7 days.  This direction came out following hearing of Second Appeal petition                No.  284/15 by the Commission.  Mrs. Bindhani  has also  given direction  to  the PIOs, Dept. of Revenue and Disaster Management and Office of Collector, Khurda  to produce detailed report  about   details of follow up action taken by them  to ensure information.  The date for next hearing was fixed  on 16.8.17.

A brief History  of the Case

In August, 2014,   it  was exposed  by  the local people and media that  huge acres of tribal was  illegally  acquired  by  late Kalpataru Das and his MLA Son Pranab Balabantaray  and Sri K.V.Singhdeo, BJP MLA in name of her daughter and many powerful people  connected  with BJD party  in Ghangapatana  area of Bhubaneswar  under jurisdiction of Tahasildar, Bhubaneswar.  After this expose , all the opposition political parties and Civil Society Groups  coming to the streets  organised  protest   dharana demanding CBI inquiry  into scam.  It is popularly  known as Ghangapatna land Scam in Odisha.   In the midst of protest, Chief Minister ordered  for  Crime Branch enquiry  and  after few days  the Govt. declared  that  70 acres of  land  of Ghangapatna returned  back to Govt. fold.

To  verify the authenticity of  information, RTI Application dt. 17.9.14 was submitted  to the PIO,  Office of Revenue and Disaster Management, Govt. of Odisha, Bhubaneswar   seeking information about details of  Ghangapatana land  returned back by Govt.  Though 30 days passed, the PIO did not supply   the information. Then, on 31.1.2.14,  I made first appeal to the First Appellate Authority  to hear the case and provide the information. Though 30 days passed, the FAA neither heard the case nor provided the information.  Then, Second Appeal  was filed  to Odisha Information  Commission  seeking  information  and penalty  against PIO under section 20 (1) of the RTI Act.

Pradip Pradhan

M-9937843482

Date-15.7.17

Odisha Bureaucrats acting as Pussy Cat of KIIT

Collector, Khurda and Tahasildar, Bhubaneswar are   acting as Pussy Cat of Dr. Achyut Samant, founder KIIT (exposed under RTI)

Dear friends

As aware you are,    while hearing Application No. 92/2016/EZ filed in National Green Tribunal, Kolkatta by Dr. Subash Mohapatra, Human Rights Activist  seeking  direct to restore  18 acres of forest land illegally acquired  by KIIT/KISS  to Govt. fold , NGT  issued  direction  dt. 21.3.17 to Secretary, Dept. of Revenue and Disaster Management and Dept. of Forest and Environment, Govt. of Odisha  to demarcate  the land in question and undertake fencing around the land and fixed   18^th May for next hearing.

Astonishingly, on 18.5.17, during hearing of the case, the State Govt. neither filed any affidavit nor produced Action Taken Report.  On third hearing dated 5.7.17, the State Govt. has again sought one month time to submit ATR.  The next hearing will be held in August 2017.

However, to understand  about steps  taken by State Govt on direction of NGT  to return back forest land illegally acquired  by KIIT/KISS,  RTI Application  dt. 20.4.17 was  filed  to the PIO,    Dept. of Revenue and Disaster Management seeking  information about Action taken on order of National Green Tribunal in Case No. 92/2016/EZ of Subash Mohapatra vs Govt. of Odisha & other on KIIT/KISS land issue by Collector, Khurda.  RTI Application was transferred to the PIO, Office of the Collector, Khurda who has transferred the said application to the PIO, Office of Tahasildar, Khurda to produce Action Taken Report. Though two months passed, the PIO has not supplied  any information.

But, the PIO, Dept. of R&DM has provided some information how the Collector, Khurda does not care to respond the series of letter sent by R&DM dept.  It was found from extract of file noting dt. 22.4.17 that the Revenue and Disaster Management forwarded the order of NGT to the Collector, Khurda with direction to implement the order of NGT dt. 21.3.17.

 Finding no response from Colletor, Khurda, 0n 10.5.17,  Sri Binay Kumar Singh,  the Under Secretary  has  again sought report  from the Collector, Khurda  about implementation of orders of  Hon’ble NGT to this Department immediately. Finding no response, the Dept. again wrote a letter dt. 1.7.17 (letter no. RDM-LRGE KHD-0024-2017) to  the Collector, Khurda  to enquire into the  matter immediately  and take necessary action  as per law  with intimation to the Dept.

On 13.4.17,   Sri Debibrata Biswal, Special Secretary to Govt. Dept. of Forest and Environment   wrote a letter to the Collector, Khurda to take necessary steps to execute orders of National Green Tribunal and send Action Taken Report immediately.

Despite plethora of letter correspondence, the Collector, Khurda simply continues to ignore the order of Dept. of Revenue and DM and Forest and Environment and does not care to produce ATR.

(All the related documents are available with me and can be provided on request from interested parties)

Pradip Pradhan 

M-9937843482

Date- 15.7.17 

Functioning of office of Advocate General of Odisha

Functioning of office of Advocate General of Odisha

(Exposed under RTI)

Dear friends

The Constitution of India provides for the appointment of an Advocate- General for each state of Indian Union. He is the first law officer of the state. As per article 165 of Indian constitution, The Governor shall appoint a person who is qualified to be appointed   a judge of High Court to be Advocate-General of the state. It is the duty of Advocate General to give advice  to the State Government  upon such legal matters and to perform such other duties of a legal character to be assigned  to him.

To monitor functioning  of  Advocate General, his performance , remuneration, other perks received,  RTI application  dt. 26.5.17 was filed to the PIO, Dept. of Law, Govt. Odisha which was transferred  to the PIO, office of Advocate General,  Cuttack to supply the information. The information sought for  as follows.

 i.  Details of  joining of  Surya Prasad Mishra as  advocate General of Odisha 

ii.  Details of salary and other allowances received  by him since his joining to May 2017 ( Year-wise).

iii. Details of travel allowances received  by him  (year –wise).

iv. Details of Cases in which he has appeared  in High  Court and Supreme Court and other tribunals.

v.  Details of fees received by him  from  various Govt. and Non-Govt. organisations/ Private bodies  while  pleading  cases on their behalf including case no. and name of court and tribunal.

vi.  About act/ Rules or notification, if any who authorizes  Advocate General to plead   case for a private organization. 

On 10.7.17, the PIO has supplied the following information

1.       Sri Surya Prasad Mishra assumes the charges of the office of the Advocate General on 22.10.2014.

2.       Total Retainer drawn by Sri Surya Prasad Mishra, Advocate General is as follows.

Year	Amount received (in Rs.)	Remarks
Oct.14 to Feb. 2015	1,08,065.00	Rs. 25,000/- per month
March, 2015 to Feb. 2016	3,00,000.00	DO
March 16 to Feb. 17	5,33,334.00	From Aug, 16, it increased to Rs. 50,000.00 per month
March to May, 2017	1,50,000.00

3.    Details of Travel Allowances  received by Advocate General  as follows

Sri Mishra has received  travel allowances  while   visiting New Delhi  and  Kolkatta frequently

Year	Places visited	Amount ( in Rs.)
2014-15	New Delhi ( 5 times)	95,114.00
2015-16	New Delhi ( 5 times) Kolkatta ( 8 times)	1,44,865.00
2016-17	Kolakatta ( 9 times) New Delhi ( 9 times)	2,16,074.00

4.       Details of  Bill of fees drawn by  Sri Surya Prasad Mishra, Advocate General for fighting various  cases  in High Court, Supreme Court and Tribunals.  ( Though information   about Case No. was sought for which the Advocate General has taken fees, the PIO  has  deliberately kept this information secret. The First appeal has been filed  to get the information  under section 19(1) of the RTI Act)

Year	Amount received	Remarks
2014-15	5,10,787.00	While  fight  a case  in SC, AG has received  Rs. 64,000.00 on 14.12.14. The PIO  has  not provided the case No.
2015-16	38,10,079.00	In a single case fighting  in SC, AG has  received  Rs. 10,52,000.00 on 2.7.15 In another  case in SC, AG has received Rs. 14, 68,000.00  on 2.8.15 ( The PIO  has kept secret  the  Case No.)
2016-17	69,35,977.00	While fighting a case in SC, AG has received Rs. 11,52,000.00 on 7.10.16 In another case dt. AG has received Rs. 11,48,000.00 In another case dt. 3.2.17, AG received 14,08,000.00 and on 6.2.17, AG received Rs. 14,08,000.00
2017-18 ( From March to May)	1,62,000.00

Pradip Pradhan

M-9937843482

Date- 13.7.17

SIET to be restored to carry out EDUSAT programme in Odisha

SIET to be restored to  carry out EDUSAT programme  in Secondary Schools of Odisha- A Civil Society Call to strengthen Govt. Institution

Dear friends

On 27.6.17,  in a high-level meeting held  under chairmanship of  Development Commissioner, Govt. of Odisha, it  has been decided  to cover Edusat ( Education through Satellite)   programme in all secondary  schools  of the state. The programme will be transmitted through Doordarshan.

But it deserves to be mentioned here that this programme was first  started  by the Central Govt.  in six states  including Odisha  having availability of INSAT.  The Central Govt. was   funding in toto  for this programme. In 1982,  SIET ( State Institute of Education and Technology ) , as an autonomous body  was formed  by State Govt. to carry out ICT @ school  programme   in the schools.  Edusat  is one of the components of the programme. It was functioning under School and Mass Education Department.  SIET has trained  and experienced   87 technical and non-technical staff  who were on deputation  from the Govt. and specially recruited   for the said programme.  with cent percent  financial support  from Central Govt., SIET  has developed  its own studio with costly camera, instrument, infrastructure  and doing  fantastic  work  in developing  audio-visual  materials  for the students  which  was being telecast   by Doordarshan. All the schools  were provided  colour TV and Radio-cum-Cassette player to watch the programme.

When the programme  was going on successfully, the State Govt.   closed  down SIET by brining out  notification dated 29.4.2013    citing  3 reasons  like cessation of  fund  by Central Govt.   for ICT @ school programme,  disturbance created  by employees and unwillingness of Staff  to generate revenue  to run SIET  in a self-sustained mode,  loss of viability  of SIET and  subsequently retrenched  all staff.  Perturbed over the said notification,  RTI Application was  filed  to the CPIO, Ministry of Human Resource Development , Govt. of India   seeking  copy of the decision taken  at  Central Govt. level  to close down SIET.  The CPIO responded that there was no such decision taken to close down SIET.  But on RTI query,  the State Govt. in Dept.  of School and Mass Education Dept.  provided  copy of  a false  and fabricated letter of Central Govt.  to close down SIET.  On query  about other two reasons, the  Dept. could not provide any satisfactory  response.   

Then, the retrenched employees armed with RTI response challenged arbitrary decision of State Govt. to close down SIET in High Court.  While hearing the case ( W.P.C. No. 11195/2013)  , the hon’ble High Court directed  the State Govt. to produce the copy  of the letter  in which the Central Govt.  had asked  State Govt. to close down  SIET.  The Secretary, Dept. of S & ME could not produce the letter but begged unconditional apology for the mistake in May 2017.

 From the RTI expose, it was found that the Central Govt. has released Rs.  40 crore to Govt. of Odisha in the year- 2012-13 to continue the programme.   Now the question comes when there was availability of fund, why the Govt. of Odisha decided to close down SIET. It was masterminded by Bijay Patnaik, then Chief Secretary, Odisha   along with a coterie of bureaucrats to swindle this fund for their vested interest.  Accordingly, a fraud    company named OKCL ( Odisha Knowledge Corporation Limited )  as Govt. Company (  it is not Govt. company later on it was exposed  under RTI)  was  created   over night with Gazette Notification and without tender an amount of Rs. 200 crore was transferred  to OKCL. It has come to our notice that OKCL is managed by kith and kin of Odisha bureaucrats.  A PIL case has been filed and pending in Odisha High Court   challenging formation of OKCL and fund illegally diverted to OKCL   without tender.

So, we demand  that  SIET  which is an autonomous  body with trained personnel  should be restored  and all ICT @ school programme  including Edusat  to be handed over to SIET with reappointment of employees  retrenched  by the State Govt.

Pradip Pradhan

M-9937843482

Date- 12.7.17 

Smart City in Bhubaneswar for Corporate Interest

Promotion of Corporate interest and their Consultancy agency in the name of Smart City by State Govt.

To promote and carry out smart city programme in Bhubaneswar, Nabin Patnaik Govt.  is going to evict 24 slums   in different  regions of Bhubaneswar. Though the State Government has developed their plan to hand over these lands located in prime locations of the city to the corporate houses, but no effective step has been taken for permanent rehabilitation of Slum-dwellers   prior to eviction. The eight-storeyed flats  which are under construction  under Rajiv Awas Yojana renamed  as Pradhanmantri Awas Yojana  meant for  allotment to Slum-dwellers  has been rejected  by slum people who have demanded land patta  rather than one-room house in the flat.

RTI was filed to PIO, office of Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited , BMC-Bhawani Mall, Saheed Nagar, Bhubaneswar  seeking information about  agencies  involved  as consultant,  fund allotted to them etc.  On 28.6.17, the PIO has provided the following information.

Name of Consultancy agency	Allotment of project work	Cost ( In Rs.)	Tenure
M/s EGIS India Consulting Engineers Pvt. Ltd.	PgMC of Smart City ( ABD) project	26,80,07,500.00	48 months
M/s IBI Consultancy India Pvt. Ltd.	PgMC of Smart City ( pancity) Project	20,45,39,000.00	48 months

 The general  impression given by both Central Govt. and State Govt.  that Smart City  is  to meet need and aspiration of the  people.  In practice, this is wrong. It is programme with public fund  to  meet  the interest of the corporate house at the cost of slum-dwellers, poor  and the common people.  A few educated urbanites, middle  class family will get benefitted. That’s why  huge fund is allotted to corporate house and their  consultancy  agencies.

We will unearth more bitter truth   about Smart City very soon.

Pradip Pradhan

M-9937843482

Date- 7.7.17