Huge Corruption, Irregularities and
Illegalities in allotment of land/plot by GA, CDA, BDA, Odisha State Housing Board
in Twin City Bhubaneswar and Cuttack
1.
In view of CAG report ( Report
of CAG on General and Social Sector , Volume-2 and 3presented in 2013
and laid in assembly in 2014 ) about alleged irregularities in
allotment of land/houses/ flats by Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA), Cuttack Development Authority
(CDA),Odisha State Housing Board (OSHB) and General Administration (GA) Department
and IDCO and subsequent demand by Opposition parties and Civil Society Groups for CBI inquiry in
form of street protest, the State Government constituted
a Task Force on dated 2.8.2014 to review all the allotment of more
than one land/houses/flats to the members of the samefamily and allotment under discretionary quota to ineligible
persons from 1995 to 2014 and submit its report within 4 months.
2.
The Task Force led by
Dr. Taradatt, Addl. Chief Secretary with the members such
as Commissioner-cum-Secretary, H&UD Department and Special
Secretary, Dept. of GA produced their report on 3.11.14. The Task Force Report came
out with details
of huge illegal allotment of plot by BDA, CDA, Odisha state Housing Board, pre and post-possession
transfers of land by some
people and multiple plots taken
by the people by filling
false affidavits. The
Task force also made series
of recommendations along with
cancellation of all discretionary
plots allotted by Minister for
Housing and Urban development
terming it as illegal.
3.
The report was placed before state cabinet on
18.12.14 and it was endorsed with Action Taken Report
which was later on published in official Gazette on 30.1.2015.
4.
After considering the recommendations, the
cabinet inter alia has directed that
the modalities of implementation of the report would be worked out in
consultation with the Law department and the Advocate General within 90 days.
On 6.5.15, after due consultation, the Govt.
finalized Modalities for
implementation of the recommendation of the Task Force.
5.
The Chief Secretary also conducted several
times the review meeting regarding progress and implementation of the
recommendation of Task Force on multiple allotments of plots/houses/flats at
Bhubaneswar and Cuttack.
6.In order to study the progress of Action taken by BDA, CDA, OSHB,
Department of GA and Finance, RTI Application was filed several times to all
the offices to get the information. All the PIOs have supplied the information
within the month of April to June, 2018.
The details of information provided by them are mentioned below.
7.
Status of Inquiry by Bhubaneswar Development
Authority
As per information supplied by BDA, Bhubaneswar , it is found that
i.732 nos. of Show-cause Notices
relating to Discretionary
Quota Allotments have been served to original allotteee by BDA.
Out of it, 36 nos of notices returned unserved and pending for paper
publications. 653 no. of Show cause
replies received has been kept for hearing by the officers to be appointed by Government. Three writ petition
cases have been filed by the allottees after receipt of show-cause notice.
ii. Show cause notices issued to 148 allottees under category of multiple allotments. Out of which
15 notices have been returned un-served. 11
no. of allotments have been cancelled.
108 no. of allottees have responded to Show cause notice and kept for
hearing. 2 of them have filed case in
High Court. Though allotment has been
cancelled, but BDA has not brought
it to its possession. These plots are
still enjoyed by the people in
possession.
iii. DSP( Vigilance) , Cuttack was
handed over 332
nos. of Original Allotment files
and all available general files of different schemes.
8. Status
of Inquiry by Cuttack Development Authority,Cuttack
i. As per
information supplied under RTI dated
18.6.18, CDA provided a list of 1091 allottees who
have been issued show-cause notice in August 2016 on the
ground of false affidavit, multiple allotments and land allotted under Discretionary quota.
ii. CDA has
provided list of 12 nos of plots
cancelled on ground of multiple allotment. But
possession of plots have not been taken over till yet.
iii. Though 3
years have passed, CDA has not yet started hearing of the response of
Show-cause notice issued to allottees.
9. Status of Inquiry by
Odisha State Housing Board, Bhubaneswar
i. Out of 67 Discretionary Quota allotment, OSHB issued show cause
notice to 66 persons except
one
whose allotment was cancelled for other reasons. Not a single plot has been cancelled by OSHB
till yet.
ii. Out of 37 multiple allotment cases, 25 persons
have been issued show-cause notice and
12 allottees were not issued show cause
as allotment was made made as per schematic provision.
iii. 15 cases have been
referred to State Vigilance for inquiry.
iv. Three allottees have
applied to OSHB for return of their land. They
are Sajjal Kumar Moulick, Pranab Balabantaray and
Snigdharani Sahu. It
is very interesting to note that though
they have applied to return the land,
OSHB has not taken any steps to recover
land from them.
10. Inquiry by General Administration Department
i. The modalities
issued by GA Dept. for
implementing recommendation of Task Force ( Para-IV) stipulates that GA Department should take immediate steps
for review and update the list of
allottees who availed the irregular
benefit of more than one
allotment of land /flat/ house against
specific schematic provision on the
basis of allotment made prior to
1.1.1995. This process should be
completed within a period of 3 months. But GA Department has not
yet prepared this list of
allotment prior to 1.1.1995. it deserves to be mentioned here that allotment of 3000
plots was made in 1991 and 1992 under plotted
Scheme “
Allotment of Residential Plots in new colonies within Bhubaneswar Municipality Area, 1989”. The list
of 3000 allottees was not handed over to Task Force Committee despite their several
requests. Even this information is also not provided under RTI Act. As because
there is huge corruption and irregularities in allotment of the plots
under the said scheme, the GA
Department is not deliberately
disclosing the list of 3000
allottees in public domain.
11. Status of Inquiry by Director, Vigilance, Cuttack
As the
office of Director, Vigilance has been kept from the purview of RTI Act,
we could not gather
any information from the
Vigilance Department. But as per
the information supplied by BDA
on 17.5.2018, it was found that
Vigilance had been handed over 332 no. of allotment files for
inquiry and so far 4 no. of cases
have been instituted by Vigilance Cell, Cuttack. Similarly, as per information obtained from OSHB on
26.5.2016, 15 no. of allotment cases have been referred to State vigilance for inquiry. But
no progress has been developed by State Vigilance
in respect of inquiry into allotment of plots/land/flats.
12. Status of Special
Audit by Finance Department
The Modalities prepared by Govt. for implementation of the recommendations
of the Task Force stipulates ( Para – vii) that
the Finance Department should
conduct special audit in respect of
the left out cases of multiple
allotments as recommended by
Task Force in Para 48(2) and to
find out the actual number of discretionary allotment made after 1.1.1995 as recommended in Para
48 (5) of the Task Force and also of
allotment made after 1.1.1995 as has been recommended in para 48 ( c) and only after the special audit is
completed on all respected , the modalities for taking action against them
has to be prepared as per law. As per
information supplied under RTI on 24.1.18, Special audit
Team was constituted as per
the letter No. 29987/F dt.
21.11.2015. The Finance Deptt. have
completed this special audit and the same report has been submitted to the GA Dept. for necessary
action at their end. It deserves to
note that though
special audit Report has been submitted , Chief Minister has not taken any steps for years
together.
( Presented by Pradip Pradhan in the Press Meet on Land Scam held in
Bhubaneswar on 4.11.20)
