Even as Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has maintained an enigmatic silence over the issue, pressure is mounting on Rajya Sabha BJD member Kalpataru Das from within the party to return the second house his family has acquired in Bhubaneswar under the discretionary quota to save further embarrassment to the party.
The issue has assumed enough importance for BJD leaders to come out in the open, one after another, mounting pressure on Das.
While senior BJD leaders Damodar Rout, Maheswar Mohanty and Kalindi Behera have already pooh-poohed Das’ specious claim that he and his son constitute, ‘technically and legally’, two separate families, it was the turn of party Chief Whip in Assembly Ananta Das to go public on the issue today.
Ananta Das hinted that the CM is contemplating action against Das. “The CM is well aware of the development. As you know, he does not tolerate any kind of corruption. He will take appropriate action after examining law,” Ananta Das told mediapersons here.
Dubbing the definition of ‘family’ given by Das as ‘wrong’, he said, “If he has violated the law, he would return the houses and plots. If does not, law will take its own course.”
Besides, Tourism and Culture Minister Ashok Panda urged Das not to tarnish the clean image of the party and the CM. “He (Das) should try to keep intact the clean image of Naveen Patnaik and the party. The CM, who always maintains transparency on every issue, would definitely consider the matter and take appropriate action,” said Panda.
BJD MlA Debasish Samantray urged Das, who is also a BJD vice-president and a former Minister, to return the houses on moral grounds. “Minister Bikram Arukh has already set an example by returning his allocated plot. If Kalpatarubabu has violated law and taken multiple plots, he should return the plots on moral grounds” said Samantray.
Meanwhile, senior Congress leader Srikant Jena said that merely returning the illegally-obtained house would not suffice. “Naveenbabu appears to have written a new CrPC as per which anybody found guilty of having more than one plot under the discretionary quota would just surrender it and evade any kind of action. This is illegal, unethical and attracts criminal offence. Misuse of discretionary quota should be inquired by a judicial commission,” said Jena.
