The BJP on Sunday alleged that Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has encroached lord lingaraj’s land under Bhimpur mouza near the city airport and added it in his residence Naveen Nivas.
Senior BJP leader Bijay Mohapatra alleged at a news conference here that the Chief Minister had taken the land in his name by paying double price. “Will ‘Papu Baba’ (referring to Patnaik’s nickname) clarify to the public that he didn’t encroach the landIJ” he asked.
Mohapatra came down heavily on the State Government for not taking stringent action against former Kendrapada SP Satish Gajbhiye, who has encroached acres of Government land and lord Jagannath’s land in the Gop area of Puri district.
“If you can evict Bana Baba immediately from his ashram at Konark and arrest Sarathi Baba and Sura Baba for grabbing Government land, why your Government fails in the Gajbhiye case,” questioned Mohapatra to Patnaik.
He raised the issue of Ghangapatna land scam, corruption relating to land and house allotment under the Discretionary Quota and land grabbed by mafias, officers, Ministers and industrial houses in the State. “Why the State Government keeps mum in these issuesIJ Why it shies away in bringing the grabbed land to Government record,” he wondered.
He said quoting the CAG report that around 50,000 acres of land worth around Rs3,500 crore were encroached during last six years. If the Government begins a probe into the matter, data regarding more encroached land would come to the fore. “Why the Government does not take any step to bring back the 404.62 acres of land grabbed by 29 industrial houses in the StateIJ” he also asked.
In a letter to the State Government, the Principal AG on May 12 had said, “Absence of effective mechanism/system to report, monitor and evict encroachments by identifying all cases, filing cases in each case and initiating follow up action at all levels of the Department, encourages encroachment as a modus operandi for grabbing land.” It showed that how the Government works to stop encroachment of the land in the State, Mohapatra derisively remarked.
However, BJD spokesperson Pratap Keshari Deb rubbished the allegations, dubbing them as baseless claims.