Terming the ongoing Vigilance inquiry into the cyclone relief loot in the Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) as “eyewash”, the Congress on Wednesday demanded dissolution of the civic body council with immediate effect and arrest all the corporators involved in the shocking incident.
On the other hand, Vigilance sleuths for the third consecutive day continued quizzing the tainted corporators and officials of the CMC and recording their statements.
Refusing to divulge the details of the investigation so far, Cuttack Vigilance SP BK Patnaik said, “The investigation is still continuing and we will let you know the details of it as soon as we complete it.”
While the Vigilance personnel had raided the houses of the accused corportators on Tuesday, the corporators were summoned to the Vigilance Directorate on Wednesday where they submitted their written statements and deposed before the investigating officials. Former Commissioner of CMC NR Mohapatra and suspended Deputy Commissioner JN Kujur also appeared before the Vigilance officers.
At least 30 Vigilance teams had simultaneously searched the houses of 29 CMC corporators, including 21 of the ruling BJD, on Tuesday while another team raided the CMC office and the residences of Mohapatra and Kujur. The raids which began since early morning went on till late night.
So far, the Vigilance probe has revealed that at least 27,000 people of the city were evacuated on October 12 from low-lying areas to safer places and kept at 72 shelter houses. Accordingly, the CMC had decided to provide them cooked food for three days and procured the materials for the purpose.
The Vigilance inquiry further revealed that the CMC officials could not run the free kitchens with the help of Government employees and, instead, allowed the corporators and private parties to distribute dry food materials. Some BJD corporators, however, bullied the CMC officials and forcibly took away all the relief materials without accounting for the quantum they had taken.
Following a massive public outcry, the Chief Minister on Monday handed over the case to the Vigilance.