The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has directed the Chief Secretary for an action-taken report (ATR) over illegal allotments of land and houses by the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA), the Cuttack Development Authority (CDA) and the Odisha State Housing Board (OSHB).
Acting on a petition filed by Angul-based Human Rights Watchdog secretary Sangita Swain, the apex human rights watchdog directed the Chief Secretary to submit an ATR within six weeks.
The petitioner had moved the NHRC on the basis of news published in The Pioneer on August 7, 2014.
The petitioner has alleged that many underserved candidates have taken houses and loans from BDA, CDA and OSHB in violation of Supreme Court’s order dated 31.03.1995.
Earlier, the commission had asked the Commissioner of Police to submit a report detailing the action taken on an FIR filed by Kalinga Sena chief Hemant Rath against the BDA at the Kharavel Nagar police station seeking action against the allotees and allotters.
However, the Commissioner of Police on January 9 last year had informed the commission that no such FIR of Kalinga Sena was received against the BDA authorities regarding land scam on different allotments.
However, it was ascertained that the State Government has been taking appropriate action against illegal allotment of Government land as well as houses of BDA, CDA and OSHB in the past years, the Commissioner of Police stated in his report.