Odisha: Naveen responds to Bijoy’s demand

Odisha Channel Bureau Bhubaneswar, Aug 2: Though he did not agree to Bharatiya Janata Party leader and his main political rival Bijoy Mohapatra demand that the Odisha Government should ask the Central Bureau of Investigation to probe into the scam involving allotment of government plots under discretionary quota, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik constituted a three-member task force on Saturday to review the allotments made in the recent years and suggest action.Mohapatra had on Friday asked Patnaik to inform the people of the State why he did not take any action against BJD leader and Rajya Sabha Member Kalpataru Das despite the Comptroller and Auditor General of India writing to his government twice last year pointing out violation of rules by Das and his family members.Pranaba Kumar Balabantaray, BJD legislator and son of Das has already surrendered two houses that he had got allotted from two different government agencies.Alleging that the land mafia had violated all sorts of rules in the State, Mohapatra had demanded that all allotments of land and plots made by Bhubaneswar Development Authority, Cuttack Development Authority, General Administration Department, Odisha State Housing Board (OSHB) and Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (IDCO) since 2002 be probed by the CBI and criminal proceedings be initiated against those who had taken more than one house or plot within the Bhubaneswar Master Plan limits.The three-member task force that the Naveen Patnaik Government formed on Saturday will be headed by Taradatt, Secretary of the Revenue and Disaster Management Department.The two other members will be the Secretary of Urban Development Department and the Special Secretary of General Administration Department of the State Government.