Reacting to the allegations that some members of the Taskforce constituted by the Government to probe the allotment of land and houses under the discretionary quota are themselves beneficiaries of such largesse, Excise Minister Damodar Rout has proposed to the Government a restructuring of the Taskforce with members against whom there are no such charges.
BJD leader Prafulla Chandra Ghadai said it is “unethical” to include in the Taskforce the officers against whom there are allegations. Rout said, “How can the members of the Taskforce, who have illegally availed houses or lands under the quota probe the alleged irregularities by other persons involved in the caseIJ The truth cannot be unravelled unless the Taskforce has members having clean track records.”
He maintained that though Taskforce Chairman Taradatt is an honest and able officer, there have been allegations against other members. So, the investigation would not be proper, he said. “The Govt should come up with a clarification that all the members of the Taskforce are honest and investigation in the allotment of lands and plots by the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA), Odisha State Housing Board (OSHB) and the General Administration (GA) Department under the discretionary quota has been impartial,” Rout said.
He also said that an inquiry has to be conducted against the allegation that the OSHB, after purchasing lands from the GA Department at a throwaway price, had allotted them to builders on the pretext of joint enterprises in the last 15 years.
“This apart, efforts must be made to find out the number of allotments of houses by the OSHB Chairman under the discretionary quota and who the beneficiaries of such allotments were,” Rout said. It may be mentioned that the Taskforce’s other two members are Urban Development Secretary Deoranjan Singh and GA Department Special Secretary Nitin Chandra.
Meanwhile, the BDA has submitted its report on the allotment of plots and houses under the discretionary quota to the Urban Development Department.