Questioning the timing of the resignation of Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) Tarun Kanti Mishra, rights activists here on Friday alleged that the State Government has asked him to step down and go to the US to avoid embarrassment as he is allegedly involved in various scams during his tenure as the Chief Secretary and the CIC.
“Following the High Court’s intervention in the Discretionary Quota issue, Mishra has been asked by the Government to resign so that he will be able to go to his children in America. We demand immediate seizure of his passport,” said Odisha Soochana Adhikar Abhijan convenor Pradip Pradhan here at a Press conference.
Pradhan said, “He has taken multiple plots in his and his wife’s name from BDA and GA department in 1989 and 1992. During his tenure as the Chief Secretary he is also involved in plot and flat distribution irregularities under Discretionary Quota.”
Similarly, as the CIC, Pradhan said, on many occasions he has violated law and humiliated RTI users. “He had been under pressure following allegations over the past year by civil society activists as he had amassed land from Government agencies through false affidavits and when it was exposed and the DQ matter came under the scanner of the High Court, he resigned as per the advice of the Government,” claimed Pradhan.
“We demand that a retired judge inquire the allegations levelled against the former CIC exclusively,” he said. Mishra, a 1975-batch IAS officer, was appointed as CIC in November 2010, three months after retiring as Chief Secretary. His tenure as CIC would have come to an end on August 1 this year.
In September last year, several RTI activists had alleged that Mishra has taken multiple plots in his and his wife’s names and sought the intervention of the Governor.