Cong criticises Odisha CM, demands CBI probe into land scam

Congress today hit out at Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for being silent on the alleged land scam and irregularities in allotment of houses and plots and demanded a CBI probe in view of the suspected involvement of many ruling BJD leaders.
"Though the land scam is rocking the state, the chief minister is surprisingly silent on the issue," Odisha PCC president Jaydev Jena told reporters here.
"While hundreds of acres had been grabbed, houses and plots had been alotted from discretionary quota in arbitrary manner. The culprits can be brought to book only through a probe by CBI," he said, adding, Congress would launch an agitation to press for a CBI probe into the alleged land scandal.

No state agency, including the crime branch of the police, would be able to expose the perpetrators as they include several ruling party leaders, Jena said, adding, the government was trying to shield the accused in both the ponzi scheme and alleged land scams.
Referring to the ponzi scheme scam in the state, he said the government had always opposed CBI probe into it but when the central agency began investigations into it following court order the role of several BJD leaders were exposed.
Some BJD leaders and other influential people were involved in grabbing forest and government land in a fraudulent way in gross violation of rules and laws, he added.

The discretionary quota for allotment of plots and houses had been abused as many people including ruling BJD leaders have made multiple acquisitions in violation of the rules, Jena claimed.
Criminal proceedings should be initiated against all those who had acquired multiple plots and houses by furnishing false affidavits, he added.