Bhubaneswar: Senior BJP leader and Bhubaneswar MP Aparajita Sarangi on Friday alleged that a massive land scam is taking place near Odisha capital under the patronage of an influential bureaucrat in the Chief Minister’s office.
Addressing a press meet in Bhubaneswar, the Lok Sabha member said that she has written a letter to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik underlining the need for a thorough investigation into the racket.
The firebrand BJP leader said that following complaints received from the affected people of two villages she recently visited the areas of Bhagabatipur and Giringaput which are close to Chandaka.
“The story which people narrated and what is being done there is mind blowing. In these villages what is going on is nothing less than some movies which people might have seen regarding how the rich and mighty use money and influence against the poor to grab more and more land for living a life of luxury and lavishness,” she said.
Claiming that around 150 acres have been covered with barbed wire fencing, Sarangi said the area covers large parcels of government land which have been encroached, land of poor and helpless villagers who have not sold their parcels, yet don’t have access to their land as it has been fenced.
Land belonging to Dhabaleshwar Deu Bije and other deities are also within the encroached area, she said, adding the fencing has been done in a manner to prevent the landholders from entering their area and eventually to force them to sell it off to the mysterious woman from Tamil Nadu. “All these lands buying by outsiders who have had no prior connection with Odisha seems highly suspicious and requires a thorough investigation,” she claimed.
It was widely believed that the land buying is happening with the patronage of an influential bureaucrat in the CM’s office and whenever the locals go to complaint before the Revenue or Police authorities, they are shut down by taking the name of the official, the BJP leader claimed.
The most disturbing fact is that an existing canal providing water to farm lands has been damaged in a systematic way, she claimed, adding that this damage to the canal system has been done deliberately to prevent the farmers from cultivating their land and thus force them to sell off their land parcel.
There are all indications and evidence of construction of a huge farm house in this enclosed parcel of land, Sarangi said, adding that land mafias are in operation who have deployed bouncers to threaten local villagers and keep them quiet. “There is a huge pedestal on which ornamental chairs have been put to survey the entire area. There are a large number of logs which have been cut and kept inside the enclosed premises. Such large logs right next to the reserve forest requires an investigation of whether some illegal felling in forest areas is not being done,” she said.
The BJP leader wondered whether the Chief Minister knows that influential bureaucrats working in his office have close linkages with this land scam and if he can cause an enquiry as to why the local people take the name of a CM office bureaucrat while discussing about the enclosed piece of land. “Can we have some clarity as to what exactly is the linkage?”, she asked.
If a satisfactory answer from the state government does not come on this, the pent-up anger and discontentment of people of these villages will take a different and difficult turn, she added.
Following the allegation made by the BJP MP, Manas Mohapatra, lawyer of Kritika Prabhakaran, told media that a legal notice will be served on Aparajita Sarangi. All land purchases by his client have been done in tune with law, he said.
