WODC has become rehabilitation centre of ‘failed’ BJD leaders: Congress

By Debadas Pradhan
Bhubaneswar, August 23: The Congress, the main opposition in the Orissa Legislative Assembly, on Tuesday said the ruling BJD had converted the Western Orissa Development Council (WODC) into rehabilitation centre by accommodating its “failed” leaders.
Raising the issue in the state Assembly, legislators of the party demanded immediate reorganisation of the body with “dynamic” people as its members.
Congress MLA from Kantabanjhi Santosh Singh Saluja said BJD leaders who suffered defeats in the 2009 Assembly and Lok Sabha polls were regularly being rehabilitated in the WODC instead of allowing dynamic people to serve the organisation.
“All those who were defeated in the last elections have been rehabilitated as expert members. These members – who have been taken in the WODC as its expert members - are trying to project them as more powerful persons than the elected Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) and Member of Parliaments (MPs). They were also behaving in authoritarian manner,” complained Mr Saluja.
He alleged that “so-called” expert members were asking for bribe to make recommendations for constituency-wise projects.
Critising the state government’s negligence in giving complete autonomy and delay in setting up of WODC headquarters, Congress legislator Naba Kishore Das said that the government’s stand on this sensitive issue was very “shocking” and “shameful.”
“WODC was formed with an objective to address the regional imbalances and bring socio-economic development to the people living in western Orissa districts. It seems that the objective has been defeated by one other the ruling BJD which always tried to make it a subservient body and a centre of rehabilitation of its rejected leaders,” Mr Das observed.
Nihar Ranjan Mohananda, another Congress member, said the WODC which was formed to carry out smooth and sustainable development of local people by formulating and executing its own development policies and programmes, was in moribund because of the state government’s inaction.
The members urged the Speaker Pradip Kumar Amat to direct the government to immediately oust the political members from the WODC appointed as expert members and accept the recommendations of the local MLAs and MPs for execution of various development projects.
The legislators demanded to fill up the post of WODC chairman which is lying vacant since August 1 and shift the headquarters of the organization from Bhubaneswar to a unanimously agreed place in western Orissa.

Pandemonium in Orissa Assembly over Vedanta University land deal, missing of file

Ratikant Mohanty
Bhubaneswar, Dec. 6: Deadlock continues to prevail in Orissa Legislative Assembly. The Opposition Congress on Monday stalled the Assembly proceedings protesting the ruling BJD’s “reluctance” to take actions against the government officials who “connived” to acquire Jagannath temple land for the proposed Vedanta University and missing of file of S. N. Das Mohapatra Limited, a mining company.

The question hour business was conducted only for 16 minutes as the Speaker Pradeep Kumat Amat adjourned the House following pandemonium created by the Congress, the main opposition in the Assembly.

Speaking to reporters after adjournment of the House, Leader of the Opposition Bhupinder Singh said the state government was paying no heed to the Opposition’s demand to inform the House as to what actions had been taken following the HC direction to “punish” the culprits who violated forest and environment laws to favour Vedanta University.

“The Naveen Patnaik government seems to have no respect for the law of the land. It even does not care to obey the order of the judiciary. The Naveen Patnaik government is keen to protect the offenders as it has its own share in the offence,” Mr Singh said.

On November 16, The Orissa High Court had declared the land acquisition for the Vedanta University project at Puri as “illegal” and asked the company to return the acquired land to the concerned people, agencies and the state government. Besides, the court directed the state government to take actions against the officials who facilitated the illegal land acquisition.

During the brief question hour business, Congress chief whip Prasad Harichandan raised the issue of missing of S.N. Das Mohapatra Limited (SNML) mining lease file from the state secretariat and sought an explanation from the government on this.

BJP Legislature Party Leader K.V. Singhdeo, while expressing dismay over the file missing, said the government could have deliberately suppressed the file as it was a vital evidence to the multi-crore mining scam.

“The missing of S.N. Das Mohapatra Mining Limited file from the high-security state secretariat is a very serious issue. When the state secretariat is not a safe place, one can well imagine what could be the situation outside,” Mr Singhdeo said.

Meanwhile, a team of police officials from the Capital Police Station went to the mining department office in the secretariat and asked the questioned a few officials about the missing file.