While the issue of illegal possession of multiple Government plots and houses under the discretionary allotment by senior BJD leader and Rajya Sabha member Kalpataru Das and his family is rocking the State, there are reasons to suspect that the party veteran has been enjoying what is said special protection rights under the Naveen Patnaik Government at least since 2011.
This is evident from the manner in which the Government and its anti-corruption wings have kept mum on the other allegedly fraudulent acts of the BJD leader, who happens to be a close confidant of the Chief Minister.
The case of illegal mining activities in the Haridaspur-Jajpur iron ore plot is one of the examples.
The State Vigilance on May 11, 2011 had conducted a series of raids on the Balabantray Transport company owned by Das’ son and present Dharmasala MlA Pranab Balabantray and the Kalinga Transport company owned by Trilochan Das, a close confidant of Kalpataru.
The investigation had revealed that the two companies, after taking the land of the Paradip Port Trust at Haridaspur on lease by fraudulent means, had later subleased it to a close associate of Kalpataru as the proprietor of the land in gross violation of rules.
later, a stockyard was constructed on the land from where iron ore was allegedly illegally and clandestinely transported to the Paradip Port.
The Vigilance officials, apart from these two companies, had also conducted simultaneous raids on the offices of the Deputy Directors of Mines at Jajpur Road and Joda and the office of a private ore exploration and transport company.
During the raids, the Vigilance came to know about illegal mining and trading of 35,000 metric tonnes of iron ore worth Rs 100 crore. Besides, it had also reportedly seized several incriminating documents during the raid.
Though three years have passed, there has been no follow-up action either by the Vigilance or the Mines Department.
Besides, another allegation has also been made against Kalpataru Das over the construction of the Dharmasala Industrial Training Centre (DITC) at Dharmasala, managed by the Gokarneswar Charitable Trust, on a village forestland.
The land was under the possession of the Government till 1984 and had forest, a beat house and a well where the institute has come up. The BJD leader had managed to take possession of the land in 2003 by submitting a handwritten patta that dates back to 1943 at the tehsil office.