Samata Kranti president and former Union Minister Braja Kishore Tripathy has dubbed the decision to cancel allotment of multiple properties by the Naveen Patnaik Government as a political gimmick.
“This is an exercise in futility since it may not be upheld in judicial forums,” said Tripathy. “Cancellation of houses and plots under discretionary quota (DQ) since 1995 has no logic behind it,” he said, adding that the scam is only a tip of an iceberg. Maximum numbers of plots and houses by the BDA, CDA, Housing Board and GA department have taken place during former Chief Ministers Nilamani Routray’s and JB Patnaik’s regimes. What action has been taken with regard to those reckless distributions, questioned Tripathy.
Besides, he said there is no transparent land policy so far in the State. Is the present cancellation of the land intended to benefit the 25 per cent landless poor of the State, Tripathy asked further. The former Union Minister demanded publication of the names of the allottees of GA plots since independence and their cancellation, besides a transplant land policy.