A high level confidential inquiry has been sought by the district police department against Bijay Kabi, who is the director of NGO ‘APOWA’ and was praised by PM Modi on his 75th episode of the Mann–ki-Baat.
CM Naveen Patnaik too patted him on his tweeter page on March 13. He got appreciations from the PM and CM for making a mangrove forest of 25 acres in Badakot village under Rajnagar block. Meanwhile, there is a growing demand to inquire about his antecedents and confirm whether he made a mangrove forest or not ,stated a senior police officer requesting anonymity.
The State police department has directed recently to the Kendrapada police to start a probe against Bijay following several media exposed him for not converting mangrove forest, whereas the villagers of Badakot, who have raised the forests in two acres of land , alleged Kabi took credit on sheer falsehood. Former Congress Minister Ganeswar Behera too alleged demanded a high -level inquiry in the matter and action against the NGO and its director.
It may be pertinent to note here that , in 2015, the Forest department had given a project to Kabi’s NGO ‘APOWA’ for raising mangrove in 42 hectares of land in four seaside villages, including Goja, Chitakhola, Debendranarayanpur and Charigharia under Rajnagar block with funds of Rs 10.72 lakh under the Integrated Coastal Zone Management Project(ICZMP) programme. One Somanath Barik of Silapokhari village later filed an application under RTI Act before Rajnagar Mangrove Forest and Wildlife Division to get information on mangrove afforestration project.
The reply provided by the concerned authority was rather surprising. It was told that 99 per cent of saplings were found non-existing in most of villages by September 17, 2016. Only, 50 per cent of planted mangrove saplings were found existing in Junusnagar village.