There is enough for everybody’s need, but there is not enough for everybody’s greed,” said Mahatma Gandhi long ago. The recent disclosures in Odisha about the plundering of public property and the properties belonging to the deities like lord Jagannath and lord lingaraj demonstrate this incessant greed. The unbridled greed of a vested interest group has led to a total lack of control of the situation in the hands of concerned authorities.
The issues relating to grabbing of Government land have been discussed in this column more than once. The CAG has produced a report on encroachment of Government land. According to available information, more than 1,336 acres of land of lord Jagannath have been illegally recorded as personal property of private individuals. Such property is dispersed all over the State in the different districts. In Tangi-Choudwar tehasil, about 1,199 acres of land belonging to lord Jagannath are reportedly under private control. As per Government land records, these are shown to be the property of private individuals rather than of the lord.
As value of land has increased over the last few years, the propensity for land grabbing has also continued to increase. Prior to that, the availability of land of this type at prices less than market value was the attraction to obtain a suitable decision from the authorities for the transfer of such land. This has led to unjust enrichment in the hands of land mafia, who are in different incarnations in the different parts of the State. Gradually, the network increased and the tainted money came to be invested in such property. This also provided lucrative avenues for money laundering.
No doubt, one needs a roof over one’s head. But that does not provide any justification for grabbing public or deities’ lands in an illegal, unethical and self-aggrandising manner. This pattern became so widespread that it required protection from influential elements to provide money power and muscle power for ensuring the concerned land grabs. Money and crime have had a collaborated sway in the field for more than a decade.
The Government has been jerked out of slumber because of intervention of superior courts of law and because of the exposures by the media. But the knee-jerk reaction of the Government is first to pretend as though the system and its overlords have no knowledge of what is going on. Faced with the stark realities, the next attempt on the part of the authorities is to do some window-dressing and pretend very severe action qua some of the bottom-level employees. The involvement of unholy elements and the indulgence in demonstrative conspicuous consumption backed by tainted money have, to some extent, been exposed through the CBI investigation into the chit fund scams. A lot still remained to be unearthed.
The CBI is on the “shore” of the “sea” of such organised illegal plunder of the poor individual depositors. A section of the alert citizenry is also demanding suitable investigation by the CBI into the causes and reasons that prevented and frustrated any meaningful action for almost two decades.
As the ugly scenario unfolds, the alert citizen is led to be convinced that the local police including the Crime Branch were definitely keeping a conscious distance from many sensitive and powerful areas and persons. This by itself is a signal of danger for the future. However, investigations were capable of manipulation and this fact has been affirmed by the revelations of the subsequent independent investigation.
The concerned citizen is bound to be disturbed to become aware of the “happy understanding” between the investigators in the local police force, the persons in power and the persons powerful enough to plunder. This is indicative of a vicious circle, and the State is also caught in this cancerous web. The role of media, at this juncture, is of crucial significance. It is through investigative exposures that the honeymoon amongst the dishonest elements is brought to an end. But this requires a leadership responsive to exposures with the capacity and ability to sour this well-nourished “honeymoon”. This leadership has further to be of a collective nature, for no isolated individual can possibly cope with the corroding cancer. The days of “I came, I saw and I conquered” are gone. But really effective corrective actions in the appropriate direction are yet to be enforced so as not only to deter but to wipe out such events.
We have gone past the stage when a warning bell could be raised through “barking” alone and have reached the unfortunate situation when halting a further downward trend calls for appropriate “bites”. Once there is an impact of the purposive measures, there would be some hope at the horizon indicative of a better tomorrow than a worse one. The virus of conversion of public property into private through illegal means is galloping day-by-day. This galloping horse has to be controlled by a good rider, who would bring back the misdirected horse to the right track. But as we look around, the hope of seeing this in the near future still appears to be bleak. And this concerns us all!
(The writer, a Senior Advocate, is a former All India Service officer, a former diplomat, a former editor, a former president of Orissa High Court Bar Association and a former Advocate General of Odisha. jayantdas@hotmail.com)