Accusing Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik of shielding land grabbers involving ruling BJD leaders, ministers and bureaucrats, the Opposition BJP today staged a demonstration in front of Raj Bhavan here demanding a CBI probe into the matter.
The BJP leaders sat on a protest dharna with state party president K V Singhdeo alleging that the members of the ruling BJD had grabbed large chunks of government land in gross violation of all norms and rules.
"We demand a CBI probe into the entire land allotments to unravel the truth," Singhdeo said.
In a memorandum to Governor S C Jamir, the BJP said "The recent expose has implicated a former state minister, a present MP and his MLA son, some senior bureaucrats and BJD functionaries in illegally and fraudulently allotting nearly 200 acres of forest land and land belonging to the department of revenue and general administration and Bhubaneswar Development Authority in their own names in full knowledge and concurrence of the Chief Minister."
Alleging that all allotments grossly violated the rule and procedure of allotment of land and houses, the party in the memorandum alleged "Since the Chief Minister himself is a party to the deal, he has been trying to suppress the fact and protect the culprits."
Quoting the CAG report, the memorandum said thousands of acre of land had been allotted by IDCO (Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation), BDA, CDA (Cuttack Development Authority) and Odisha State Housing Board at a pittance, arbitrarily flouting all norms and procedure and by-passing the "auction route", to the select few who have benefited hugely at the cost of the state.
The Opposition party also rejected the state government's announcement of setting up a Task Force to probe the alleged land scam terming it as an "eye wash".
The BJP leaders urged the Governor to direct the state government to order a CBI probe into the entire scam starting from the year 2000.
