BHUBANESWAR: Spare the law-flouting ‘babus,’ strike the ordinary men. This seems to be the mantra of Naveen Patnaik Government.
The Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA), after having the proof that it has not done its homework, seems to be working overtime to nail ordinary people rather than those who violated the laws with impunity.
Instead of setting a precedence by taking exemplary action against the top bureaucrats and IPS offices of the State who have acquired multiple properties in the Capital, the development authority on Monday cancelled allotments of four ordinary denizens in what was a clear case of face-saving measure.
What baffles is the BDA’s attempt to remain silent on those top ‘babus’ who had full knowledge of the implications of a false affidavit, yet chose to defy the law.
The BDA is known to be not forthcoming when it comes to sharing information and has expectedly remained tight-lipped about the 12 persons who have been slapped notices for acquiring multiple government assets. But on Monday, it went public by disclosing names of four persons whose double allotments were cancelled.
The BDA declared Vivekananda Panda’s Plot-K4 and Dharitri Dwibedi’s Plot-K9 in Kalinga Nagar plotted as cancelled. Similarly, Sameer Kumar Sasmal and Manjushree Sasmal, who had acquired two housing units in Arya Vihar Housing Scheme and another couple, Shashank Sekhar Sahoo and Puspa Sahoo’s property under the same scheme, were cancelled. All the four cancelled allotments were made between 1996 and 2009.
Interestingly, the BDA admitted that no false affidavits were furnished for acquiring these plots contrary to the bureaucrats who have possessed more than one property by furnishing false affidavits that amounts to a criminal offence.
The big question has been who is BDA trying to protect? Since the development authority calls for affidavits in each application, how come it does not know how to utilise the sworn documents.
Currently, if the BDA appears clueless about the number of ‘babus’ who had acquired multiple government allotments taking advantage of various schemes, the problem is clearly its own because it uses no checks and balances.