leader of Opposition Narasingha Mishra on Thursday demanded a CBI inquiry to determine on whose recommendation disgraced Factories Assistant Director (Medical) Dr Motilal Gouda was appointed to the key post despite being marked ‘absconding’ in the records of the Health Department.
He accused law Minister Arun Sahu and some BJD MlAs of having strong links with Gouda.
Alleging that the Crime Branch probe in the case is not moving in the right direction, the senior Congress leader said, “Due to the lack of an independent probe agency in the State, the CBI should take charge of the case or a special investigation team (SIT) should be set up under judicial supervision.”
He demanded that the suspected Minister and legislators of the ruling party be brought under the purview of the probe.
“The Motilal Gouda case proves how corrupt the Naveen Patnaik Government is. It is unfortunate that a Minister and several ruling party MlAs and leaders are involved in this. The Crime Branch is not investigating in that direction.”
Notably, on November 17 last year, the Government had removed 408 medical officers from Government service for remaining “absent from duty for a long period unauthorisedly and willfully”.
Surprisingly, Gouda managed to work as the Assistant Director in the Department of Factories (Medical), which functions under the labour Department.
Gouda allegedly issued a fake notification asking industries in the State to get the health checkups of their staffs done at one of the five ‘empanelled’ pathology laboratories. Based on this notification, he even managed to sign a contract worth Rs 63 lakh with Navartna Central PSU Nalco and was in the process of signing another contract worth Rs 1.02 crore when his game was up.