CAG raps Odisha govt for arbitrary land allotment

Of 464.47 acres, non-government bodies were allotted 183.44 acres by department headed by Naveen Patnaik

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has rapped the Odisha government headed by Naveen Patnaik for allotting valuable land here without any proper policy for the past 12 years.

The latest CAG report for the year ended March 31, 2012, that was tabled in the Assembly yesterday, said the General Administration (GA) department allotted 464.47 acres in Bhubaneswar in 337 cases during 2000-12 to individuals, government offices, government undertakings and private bodies for establishment of hotels, hospitals, educational institutions and NGOs.

Of the 464.47 acres, non-government institutions/organisations were allotted 183.44 acres by the department headed by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who has been at helm since 2000.

"Although the General Administration (GA) department was entrusted with the management of this land since 1952, yet no rules, regulations, manuals for allotment of land have been framed by the department for the last 60 years ...The department has no comprehensive data on total land available, allotted and encroached upon," the report said.

A test check of 164 cases of the total 337 found that the process of land allotment lacked a defined policy and procedure and absence of any rule or criteria gave room to arbitration in allotment.

"There was no uniformity in disposal of applications, sanction of concession on premium to be paid, changes in land use plan and resumption of encroached land," the report said, adding that proclamations inviting public objections as stipulated in Odisha Government Land Settlement Rules were not published in any of the test checked cases.

Of the cases checked, 63 pertained to other than government parties. Of these, 16 applications for land were disposed off within a year while in the rest delays ranged from a year to 24 years, it said.