Quarters Unauthorizedly occupied by Ex-MLAs and Ex-Ministers in Odisha

Quarters Unauthorizedly occupied by Ex-MLAs  and Ex-Ministers in Odisha

Dear  friends

When Sri pratap  Sarangi  took  oath  as Central  Minister,  Media  reported  about  illegal occupation of  Govt. quarters  by  him. As  if , he  is the  only  person  who has  occupied  Govt. quarters  unauthorisedly.  Accordingly, RTI Application was  filed  to the  PIO,  Department  of General Administration and PG, Govt. of  Odisha  seeking  information about  details of Govt. quarters   unauthorisedly occupied  by  former MLAs  and  Ministers including  Sri Pratap Sarangi. The PIO, Dept. of GA &PG(Rent)  provided  the  following  information.

It  was  found  that  Sri Sarangi  has  already  paid penal  rent  dues  upto 31.3.19. Like  Sri Sarangi, total no. of 21 former MLAs  and Ministers of  BJD, BJP and Congress  are  unauthorized occupants and having pending dues  to be  deposited. The  details of  information  provided  by the PIO is as follows.

Quarter  details of Sri Pratap Chandra Sarangi, Ex-MLA now MP

Name	Details of Quarters			Date  of Cancellation	Penal Rent per Month (Rs.)	Amount paid till 31.3.2019	Amount outstanding till 30.9.2019
	No	Type	Unit
Sri Pratap Ch. Sarangi	7/2	MLA(F)	IV	31.5.2014	8287.00	4,80,712.00	49,722.00

Former MLAs  and Ministers occupying  Govt. quarters unauthorisedly  are  as follows.

Sl.No.	Name	Quarter  Details			Date  of Cancellation of allotment	Amount outstanding till 30.9.2019
		No	Type	Unit
1	Smt. Sarojini Hembram	4	VIM R	VI	18.6.2014	73,974.00
2	Saroj Kumar Samal	4	4R	VIII	24.6.2019	41,649.00
3	Sanjeeb Kumar Sahu	1	B	II	24.6.2019	55,979.00
4	Sananda Marandi	2/2	VIID/S	III	8.8.2019	62,524.00
5	Ramesh  Ch. Majhi	15	VIIC	I	8.6.2019	62,524.00
6	Rabi Narayan Naik	16	C	NA	24.6.2019	53,722.00
7	Puspendra Singhdeo	13/1	VIC	I	24.6.2019	41,649.00
8	Praveen Ch. Bhanjadeo	3	VII	I	24.6.2019	55,979.00
9	Pravat Kumar Tripathy	12	VIR	VI	24.6.2019	41,649.00
10	Nitesh Gangadeb	4/2	4R	III	24.6.2019	22,686.00
11	Nandini Devi	14	5 RF	III	24.6.19	55,979.00
12	Mahesh Sahu	4	B	VIII	24.6.2019	55,979.00
13	Kishor  Ch. Tarai	3	B	VIII	24.6.19	55,979.00
14	Jugal Kishor Patnaik	8	VIMR	VI	24.6.2019	45,519.00
15	Debashis Nayak	2/2	VIA	I	24.6.2019	41,649.00
16	Damodar Rout	3	VIII	I	24.6.2019	75,780.00
17	Bijayashree Routray	2/1	VIID/S	III	8.6.2019	65,191.00
18	Bibhuti Bhusan Harichandan	13/2	VIC	I	24.6.2019	47,961.00
19	Bhujabal Majhi	7	VIIC	I	24.6.2019	55,979.00
20	Late Bed Prakash Agrawal	2	VIIIMR	V	20.5.19	1,00,310.00
21	Basant Kumar Panda	89	VR	VI	24.6.19	27,851.00

Pradip Pradhan

M-9937843482

Date – 24.10.19

Fact-finding Report on “Child Deaths in Malkangiri District

Press Note on 14th RTI anniversary released by NCPRI

Press Note on 14^th RTI anniversary

 October 12, 2019, marked 14 years of implementation of the RTI Act in India. The law has empowered millions of people across the country to exercise their fundamental right to seek information and hold the government accountable.

 Never has the government’s commitment to transparency been as questionable as it is today, on the 14^th anniversary of the Right to Information law- information of critical national and public importance continues to be denied and the Act itself was weakened through amendments..

 The convention, organized by the Central Information Commission is the first since the RTI Amendment Act 2019 was passed by Parliament which dealt a serious blow to the law. Despite protests across the country and opposition from several political parties, the BJP government brought in amendments to the RTI Act. There were no public consultations on the amendments and in fact even the text of the amendment Bill was not made public before being introduced in Parliament. The amendments empower the central government to make rules regarding the tenure, salaries, allowances and other terms of service of the chief and other information commissioners of the Central Information Commission (CIC) and all state information commissions (SICs).

 It has been more than 2 months since the amendments received the assent of the President on August 1, 2019. However, till date the central government has not promulgated rules. Though the DoPT MoS Jitendera Singh and Home Minister Amit Shah spoke at the inaugural session of the CIC convention, they did not make any reference to the recent amendments to the law nor did they give any indication of the time-frame in which rules will be made.

 In complete denial of the dismal reality of the implementation of the RTI law Home Minister, Amit Shah claimed that this government is committed to transparency.

 The abrogation of articles 370 and 35A has meant that the J&K RTI Act stands repealed. The transparency law in the state was repealed without any transparency in the process itself! There is no clarity about the status of the appeals and complaints pending before the J&K State Information Commission as the commission was set up under the J&K RTI Act. The state Act also had some progressive provisions not contained in the Central RTI Act- such as time bound disposal of second appeals.  

 The track record of the government on openness has been questionable. For instance, the government resisted disclosure of records and deliberations regarding demonetisation. Electoral Bonds were introduced as a mode of anonymous funding of political parties through an amendment to the Finance Bill. Preposterous claims were made by the government that this was being done to bring in greater ‘transparency’. BJP was the biggest beneficiary of the electoral bond scheme launched by the government in 2017-18, bagging 94.5% of the bonds worth a little over Rs 210 crore masking the unholy nexus between corporates and the ruling party. The government has also kept under wraps information about bank frauds and NPAs. It also tried to suppress the release of the unemployment data.

 ‘Report Card of Information Commission 2018-19’ brought out by Satark Nagrik Sangathan (SNS) and CES on the functioning of information commissions across the country has found that despite the directions of the Supreme Court in judgment in February 2019 to appoint information Commissioners to the Central and State Information Commissions, many appointments to the information commissions have not yet been made. In fact currently four posts of information commissioners in the CIC are vacant.

 Furthermore, scores of RTI users have been attacked and more than 84 killed in their quest for information and accountability. This month itself an RTI activist in Rajasthan was allegedly killed in police custody. Even as the attacks continue unabated, the government has failed to operationalize the Whistle Blowers Protection Act which was passed in 2014.

To mark the anniversary of the RTI law, NCPRI members in many states held events resolving to protect RTI, increase it's usage and overcome the attempt to weaken one of the most radical freedom on information legislations in the world. After the amendments were passed in the Parliament, the National Campaign for Peoples’ Right to Information launched a year long "Use RTI, Demand Accountability" campaign on August 1^st 2019. To demand accountability from the government, RTI users and citizen campaigns have been filing and will continue to file RTIs on pressing issues of public interest. Some of the RTIs already filed sought information on issues such as district mineral funds, lynching cases, Aadhaar and voter ID linkage, electoral bonds, the National Food Security Act amongst many others.

By NCPRI , New Delhi

On 13.10.19

Story about Forgery, manipulation and illegality in awarding land patta by Manas Ray, Additional Tahasildar , Ranapur

Story  about  Forgery, manipulation and illegality  in awarding land patta   by Manas Ray, Additional Tahasildar , Ranapur 

We demand  before authority to initiate legal proceedings against Sri Manas Ray, main accused in manipulation of land patta in favour of Bipin Jena of Bankapur village under Ranpur Tahasil of Nayagarh district as per direction of High Court, Odisha.

 1.  Bipin Jena of Bankapur  village  is the eldest son  of  deceased  Dasarathi Jena and Kumudini Jena ( two sons  and three daughters). He  in collusion  with Sri Manas Roy , Additional Tahasildar  and other employees  of Ranapur Tahasil manipulated the Govt. procedures , prepared  forged  documents  and obtained land patta  of  the whole land  of his father in his name.

2.       Bijini Jena, younger brother  of Bipin Jena having  heard  from some sources about his brother obtaining land patta  of  their ancestral property  in his name through submission of  forged  documents, applied   to Sub-Registrar office, Nayagarh  for certified copy  of land records.

3.       Then,  Bijini Jena  filed RTI  application under RTI Act  to the PIO, office of Tahasildar , Ranapur  seeking information about  details of documents produced  by his elder brother Bipin Jena  to get land Patta and approval of Tahasildar. Both  the PIO and First Appellate  Authority  did not  supply any information leading  to filling of  Second Appeal petition which is pending for disposal of Odisha Information Commission.

4.       Then, Bijini Jena moved  from   pillar  to post  filling  a number  of complaints  to the  Collector, SP, Nayagarh and Inspector-in-Charge , Ranapur seeking  an inquiry  into it. But nothing happened.

5.       This news  was highlighted  by Dharitri news paper on 21^st January, 2019 which prompted District administration to  come with action mode  by cancelling land patta  in name of Bipin Jena. But Tahasildar  did  not take any  action against  the  officials involved  in preparing  forged document and helping Bipin Jena  to obtain Land patta  by manipulating  Govt. procedure.

6.       Finding denial of justice by every authority, Bijin Jena, at last , approached Odisha  High Court  seeking justice. Acting on writ petition ( case No. CRLMP No. 1090 ),  on 28.8.19, the hon’ble High  directed  to the  Chief Secretary, Home Secretary, Govt. of Odisha and director General of Police, SP, Nayagarh and inspector-in-Charge , Ranapur  to register FIR  and take quick action against the accused  within 4 weeks.

7.       After direction of High Court, the  Ranapur Police has registered  the FIR  against  the main accused Sri Manas Ray, Additional Tahasildar and other officials of  Ranapur Tahasil. In the meantime,  the police has arrested Bipin Jena and a Revenue  Inspector involved in  assisting for preparation of forged documents. But  interestingly, the   police under pressure from Collector, Nayagarh is trying to protect Manas Ray, main accused  who  has taken  huge  money  to manufacture all documents in support of Bipin Jena.  Despite repeated complaints from Bijin Jena, Sri Roy did  not  conduct any inquiry. He has  not yet  been arrested . we  came to know that the district administration has transferred him  to Jharsuguda district  in order  to save him from arrest. 

Posting  by  

Dillip Samantaray , RTI Activist  and Advocate 

Date-13.10.19

M- 9853632850