Accusing the State Government of not following stipulated guidelines strictly as prescribed by law while recommending names of various persons for several constitutional posts like State Information Commissioners (SIC) to the Governor, RTI activist Jayanta Kumar Das on Friday alleged that due process was not followed while finalising the name of former SIC Jagadananda.
Alleging that the selection committee headed by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, leader of Opposition in the State Assembly Bhupinder Singh and a senior Cabinet Minister which selected Jagadananda as SIC had not scrutinised his backgrounds in details, Das said that the former SIC had owned a plot in the name of his wife from the General Administration (GA) in Ghatikia under Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) area though he possesses several plots under the BMC area.
“As per a Government decision, a person having a plot within jurisdiction of the BMC area cannot be entitled to get a plot from the GA but, in the former SIC, the rule was thrown to the wind since the leaseholder’s husband Jagadananda was already in possession of a homestead land in BMC area since February 15, 1989,” Das said.
It may be noted here that Jagadananda’s wife Manjushree Patnaik was allotted a lease plot number 58 in Ghatikia area on April 23, 1992.
“It appears that either leaseholder Manjushree might have filed a false affidavit in the court by stating that neither her husband Jagadananda nor her dependent children were owner of any plot in the BMC area or the GA Department had knowingly or unknowingly overlooked the rules,” Das charged.
Hence, I have approached the Governor to order an inquiry into the affidavit filed by Manjushree to get the lease plot and ensure cancellation of the plot, Das said.