With a duping case having surfaced in the Sundargarh Credit Cooperative limited involving loss of huge sums of money deposited by many tribals, its president and local MlA Sarada Nayak is facing a lot of protest here.
Opposition political parties, especially BJP, have demanded his resignation and a probe by an independent agency to unravel the role of Nayak in the irregularities. The BJP held a demonstration in support of its demand. On Thursday afternoon, the BJP cadres under the leadership of party’s vice president Hari Routray demonstrated in Bisra Chowk and torched the effigy of Nayak demanding his early resignation.
Former Rourkela MlA and Congress leader Pravat Mohapatra said Nayak should resign soon for his alleged involvement in the scam. The story of Sundargarh Credit Cooperative limited has exposed the real face of ruling BJD, he further alleged. He demanded stern action against the culprits and necessary steps to return back the hard earned money deposited by the poor tribals of the district.
Interestingly, former State council member of BJD PP Ray demanding strong action against Nayak and a thorough inquiry, shot off a letter to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. On the other hand, refusing the allegation, Nayak said he is targeted for cheap political interest by his oppositions. He further clarified that before he became an MlA in 2003, the cooperative was formed.
Source said while Nayak was in Congress, he had started the cooperative and was its president while one Prasanna Kumar Acharya was its secretary. In 2004, when he was elected to State Assembly in BJD ticket leaving Congress, the activities of the cooperative was speeded up with each member asked to deposit Rs 10,000 as share price at Nayak’s behest.
As he was in power and a ruling party MlA, the investors did not dare to resist him from this practice and when he got a berth in the Council of Ministers, the tragedy of the investors compounded as they could not get back their investment amount, nor did the administration initiate any action against the cooperative. After an RTI plea of one Pradeep Jena revealed the non existence of the cooperative, the investors began to smell a rat about the organization’s transactions. The issue also generated much heat in the House. Now, the opposition parties and dissidents of the BJD are in a mood to make it an issue as the 2014 elections.
The BJP District president and former District Congress Committee president Nihar Ray demanded a probe into the fraud by an independent agency and stern action against Nayak. DCC president BN Pattanaik dubbed Naveen Patnaik’s very claim that ‘law will take its own course’ as hollow. Sources revealed that in the cooperative there were six directors but surprisingly its board meeting was never held since its inception.