Odisha Govt Partially Rolls Back Decision To Cancel DQ Plots & Houses

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government has partially rolled back its decision taken eight years ago to cancel nearly 1,800 flats, houses and residential plots, allotted under the discretionary quota (DQ) in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack.

After the state cabinet decided to exclude ‘single’ allotment of land or houses under the discretionary quota from task force report, the opposition parties accused the government of trying to hide “corrupt practices”. Opposition termed the move as an attempt to protect influential people who availed the benefit under DQ.

The state cabinet on Friday decided that allotments made under DQ, which have been made in terms of the brochure and schemes to persons who are single allottees by state-owned agencies, “which can be considered as genuine and which is in sync with court orders” will be excluded from the purview of a task force report, based on which the decision to cancel the allotments was taken in 2014.

Senior Congress leader Jayadev Jena said the sole intention behind forming the task force in 2014 was to divert public attention from the controversy over DQ allotment and thereby to protect those in power.

After the task force, headed by then revenue secretary Taradatt submitted its report in November, 2014, the state cabinet on December 18, had decided to cancel all allotments made under DQ since January 1, 1995. A vigilance inquiry was also ordered into those cases of multiple allotments to individuals and families on the basis of false affidavits or misleading information

A total of 1,791 discretionary allotments were made (between 1995 and 2011) — 803 by Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA), 921 by Cuttack Development Authority (CDA) and 67 by Odisha State Housing Board (OSHB).

The task force report had made some critical observations and said that examination of documents presented by BDA, CDA and OSHB revealed infirmities in the schemes launched by them.