Senior BJP leader Bijay Mohapatra on Tuesday lashed out at the State Government over the land scam and failure of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to check irregularities in land and house allotment scam. Mohapatra said the State Government has allotted several plots at low premium rates, as a result of which the State has lost huge amounts of revenue.

It didn’t increase the benchmark value of land during last 11 years which also resulted in huge losses to the State exchequer, he added. “Without revising the premium of land, the Chief Minister has allotted several GA Department plots during his tenure. The Accountant General even mentioned in his report that the State lost Rs 251.9 crore due to the mindless allotments,” Mohapatra said.

The Cabinet Ministers were not aware about the AG report and decision at the Cabinet meeting was conducted on Taskforce report recently which raised many eyebrows on the Chief Minister’s way of conducting rules of business.

Even the decision of cancelling of plot allotments and Vigilance probe into the scam was confusing enough for public, said the BJP leader. Mohapatra alleged that the State Government had not given all the data relating to land and plot allotments to the AG. It showed that the Chief Minister takes decisions like an insane person, he added.

The time has come for the BJD Government to step down and the Government has no right to be in power anymore, he said. He said Amit Shah’s rally during his visit to Odisha on January 6 and 7 would boost the BJP’s membership drive across the State. A massive campaign would begin from the rally named ‘Mahasangram’. Shah’s rally would be a stern message for the BJD Government to give up its utopian desire to rule the State again, remarked Mohapatra while exalting strong determination.