RTI activist Pradeep Pradhan on Sunday said the successive State Governments, including the incumbent Naveen Patnaik regime, have not framed any land allotment policy in last 50 years only to exercise discretionary power to allot Government land to people of their choice.
Commenting on the land allotment irregularities revealed by the CAG and subsequently established by the Dr Taradatt-led Taskforce, Pradhan said the Naveen Patnaik Government was hell-bent not to frame any policy for land allotment for the reason better known to it. He said the information he collected through the RTI recently from the PIO of the General Administration Department corroborates his claims.
“The State Government had formed a Cabinet Sub-Committee for framing a land Allotment Policy in December 2009. But the report of the committee is still awaited for Government approval,” Pradhan informed quoting a RTI reply he received on December 11, 2014. Pradhan alleged that while he had sought information about date of the report submitted by the sub-committee, the PIO has cunningly avoided responding to it and denied to provide the said information.
“Interestingly, though the sub-committee has produced the report, the Government has not taken a single step to frame the land Allotment Policy in the State. This is the true character of the Naveen Patnaik Govenrent,” Pradhan said. He further alleged that the absence of a transparent policy has given unbridled power to the State bureaucracy to allot land to their sweet will causing huge loss to State exchequer.