BJP seeks CBI probe into house allotments in Odisha

Senior BJP leader Bijoy Mohapatra said the details of the land scam had come out in a report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India that was tabled in the Assembly recently.

Senior BJP leader Bijoy Mahapatra (centre) addressing the media in Bhubaneswar on Friday. Photo: Lingaraj Panda

As a controversy was raging in Odisha over allotment of government houses and plots to senior politicians of the ruling Biju Janata Dal under discretionary quota, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the matter.

At a press conference here, senior BJP leader Bijoy Mohapatra said the details of the land scam had come out in a report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India that was tabled in the Assembly recently.

Mr. Mohapatra blamed Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for the alleged illegal allotments made to government agencies such as the Bhubaneswar Development Authority, the Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (IDCO, and Odisha State Housing Board. The Chief Minister kept the issue in cold storage for a long time, even though the Orissa High Court had ordered way back in 2000 that the State government have a policy and guidelines for allotments, Mr. Mohapatra said.

Even after a Committee was formed on the basis of the High Court order after eight years in 2010, no guideline was framed, the BJP leader said.

He further said all illegal allotments made by the government after the High Court order in 2002 should be investigated by the CBI and action should be initiated against Ministers, legislators and bureaucrats who had taken more than one government plot or house in the Master Plan area of Bhubaneswar.

“The Chief Minister should answer to the people why was he sitting on the High Court order for long to prevent such illegal allotments,” Mr. Mohapatra said.

Referring to the surrender of two house by Pranab Kumar Balabantaray, BJD legislator and son of BJD Rajya Sabha Member Kalpataru Das, one on Thursday and another on Friday amid growing criticism, Mr. Mohapatra said one cannot escape criminal prosecution by surrendering a plot or a house.

Even though the CAG had brought the issue of allotments made in favour of Mr. Das and his family members to the notice of the State government last year, no action was taken on the issue, Mr. Mohapatra said.