PARADIP: Large-scale irregularities have been alleged in conducting auction for providing rights of collection of cashew nuts from Badatanda forest in Nuagaon panchayat under Erasama tehsil of the district. As a result, the State Government has been losing lakhs of rupees in revenue.
Sources said Rajnagar Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) had recently invited auction for collection of cashew nuts from about 40,000 trees in Badatanda forest and fixed January 11 and 18 for awarding auction to the bidder. Each bidder has been asked to submit a demand draft of Rs 50,000 towards security deposit.
On January 11, Rajnagar DFO had awarded rights of cashew collection to Dhruba Pallei of Nuagaon village, who had quoted Rs 23.5 lakh, and second bidder Susant Mallick who had submitted quotation of Rs 23.2 lakh. A total of 23 bidders had participated in the auction. As no one paid their quoted amount as per the deadline, the auction was cancelled and January 18 was scheduled for re-auction. However, this time the tender was awarded to Susant Mallick, who quoted Rs 1.92 lakh for the work.
Sources said there was tender fixing and nearly 13 bidders who did not participate in the auction extended their support to Mallick. As per their negotiation, the non-official valuation of the auction was Rs 13.5 lakh and they demanded that Mallick should pay Rs 11.6 lakh towards their share.
Locals alleged that this year, before participating in the auction, the bidders were divided into two groups. One bidder is selected from each group to participate in the auction and submit low rate in the quotation. Later, the bidder who obtained the rights to collect cashew nuts has to pay the fixed amount to other bidders who don’t participate in the process.
Similarly, the bidder who wins auction earns huge profit. Recently, pro-industry leader Tamil Pradhan, who was mediating in the process and extended support to Mallick, was targeted by miscreants of Kendrapara for non-payment of their extortion money fixed during the negotiation. They had demanded Rs 5 lakh from Mallick for availing the auction at a very low rate. On January 18 night, two unidentified persons had also hurled bombs at Pradhan in Nuagaon village under Abhyachandpur police limits.
Meanwhile, the elected representatives and villagers of Nuagaon, Gadakujang, Dhinkia, Balitutha, Chatua and Baleipur panchyats led by Gadkujang Sarpanch Sampad Barik sought the intervention of the Chief Minister, Collector, SP, local MLA and MP over the issue. They also demanded that auction be held at Nuagaon instead of Rajanagar in Kendrapara district on safety grounds.