Scribes stress on action against rowdy medicos and IIC of Mangalabag P.S.

Posted on June 17, 2013 by orissamattersbbsr

Cuttack based scribes belonging to both the print and electronic media, in a signed memorandum to Orissa’s Director General of Police today stressed on action against medicos who kidnapped two reporters of Naxatra News from the medicine indoor of SCB Medical College on June 15 and tortured them in wrongful confinement for more than two hours. They also demanded stern action against the inspector-in-charge of Police of Mangalabag PS for discernible siding with the rowdy medicos.

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Members of the presidium of Media Unity for Freedom of Press (MUFP) Prasanta Patnaik and Subhas Chandra Pattanayak and coordinator of Save the Samaja Forum Pabitra Maharatha accompanied the aggrieved scribes in a major rally to Police headquarters. In absence of the DGP, the memorandum was received by Additional DGP Mr. Sanjib Marik.

tortured journalist briefs the ADGP

The tortured scribes, Chittaranjan Samantray and Debasis Mohanty gave a detail description of how they were shanghaied into wrongful confinement in a hostel of the medical college by a gang of around a hundred medical students and interns and physically tortured. They were forced to kneel down for hours and then forced to proceed to the same medicine indoor for begging apology before the indoor patients before whom on June 14 they had raised objections to what the house surgeons had said about the father of Samantray.

Samantray’s father was admitted into the medicine ward for treatment. The house surgeons pronounced that the senior Samantray had developed damage in both his kidneys and insisted that he should be shifted to a private hospital. Samantray was shocked, because no pathological investigation had indicated about any damage to the kidneys and he protested. This irked the house surgeons and they started rebuking him in filthy language. An embarrassed and shocked Samantray tried to capture the highly atrocious conduct of the medicos; but obstructed, he went to the unit head and professor of medicine, Dr. Siddharth Das and placed before him his grievances. Dr. Das rushed to the spot and investigated into the matter and as all co-patients of the indoor ward corroborated the allegations raised by Samantray, asked the errant medicos not to work in the same ward. This further irritated the medicos.

When next day, June 15, he had come to attend his father, his co-reporter Debasis had also come with him to meet the professor in his indoor chamber in matter of his ailing mother. Seeing them in the indoor corridor, the miscreant medicos jumped on them and whisked them away into the hostel, where they were kept in wrongful confinement and tortured.

The gory part of the incident is that the IIC of Mangalabag Mr. Shariffudin having come to the spot on SOS message from the affected scribe remained a silent spectator of the torture and willfully neglected to register the FIR filed by them and was later seen entertaining the miscreant medicos in his chamber and registering a parallel FIR filed by them in order to create a confusion in course of criminal justice dispensation.

memorandum

About 50 scribes, while collectively presenting their Memorandum, informed the ADGP that the same IIC is terrorizing them and urged upon him to investigate into his conduct and discipline him. Besides the two victims of medico-police atrocity, the memorialists included, amongst others, Pradip Sahu,Navdeep Das,Cittaranjan Mishra, Satchidanand Behera, Gopal Mohapatra, Matrudatta Mohanty,Prasanta Mohanty, Jyotiprakash Rao, Bikash Sharma, Abhi Mohanty, Amardev Nayak, Rajkishore Panda, Pratap Chandra Sahoo, Devi Prasanna Khuntia, Rajkishore Mohanty, Ch. Jagannath Patra, Satyajit Mishra, Saroj Kumar Mallik,Ajaya Kumar Das, Pabitra Maharatha, Prasanta Patnaik and Subhas Chandra Pattanayak.

The ADGP has assured to take suitable action in the matter and expeditiously.

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Swindlers of the Samaja funds stay safe by framing up Braja Bhai

Posted on April 20, 2013 by Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Sting operation was about to expose Manubhai Patel, but the ex-GM had saved him

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

A Cuttack Court failed to use its judicial wisdom to grant bail to Braja Bhai, presently in judicial custody in a motivated police case, too dazzled as it was by parade of a different episode in which he was framed up, necessitating the Supreme Court’s grace for granting of bail. But, exclusive information under our possession makes it clear to us that in that case too, he was wrongfully implicated. The real culprits – Manubhai Patel, Manorama Mohapatra and Satya Paul et al – who had swindled the funds of the Samaja, have stayed safe till date, because a retired IAS officer Dandanirodh Mishra, similar to the one presently in occupation of GM post in the paper, had then used his influence in administration to frame up Braja Bhai in order to save the swindlers.

Mishra has reminded Manubhai in a caustic communication of how the three of them are under “Democle’s Sword” with Braja Bhai having made his statement in the misappropriation case pending against him and how embarrassing it would be to the three of them when the process of investigation would eventually end. “(It) would be a matter of serious discussion in the State, to your embarrassment and the embarrassment of the Board of Management, especially when the process of investigation pertaining to misappropriation of Rs.97.00 lakhs from the Samaja account is yet to be completed, with Democle’s Sword hanging on you, on Smt. Manorama Mohapatra and Shri Satya Paul as per statement of Braja Bhai”, he has told Maubhai Patel.

“Had I not taken the right step at the right time, I am afraid, now you would have been in jail instead of Sri Braja Bhai”. This is how ex-general manager of The Samaja, Dandanirodh Mishra recapitulated his role in a letter to Manubhai Patel, the then chief of Servants of the People Society (SoPS) on 25.07.2007.

He had even saved Patel from being caught in sting cam while bartering away independence of the Samaja to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik against Rs.50.00 lakhs of slush money on 15.11.2006.

Patel, as President of SoPS that has kept Orissa’s premier daily – the ‘Samaja’ – in capture, had pledged publicity support to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik against a sum of Rs. 50 lakhs, through a mediator he was relying upon, says a reliable sourse.

When he was proceeding to Puri on the appointed day to receive the slush money in person, Mishra, having gotten a whisper about sting cameras waiting for the transaction to take place., had saved Patel from the sure-to-occur exposure by warning both him and the CM and by arranging a talk between both of them on the road over the phone.

“You are aware that I had saved you from embarrassment, humiliation and ignominy by requesting the Chief minister to have a telephonic discussion with you when you were rushing to Puri on 15th November 2006 to collect a sum of Rs.50.00 lakhs as promised to you over telephone by somebody (whom you assumed to be the Chief Minister) without meeting the Chief Minister as per the scheduled programme”, Sri Mishra had later written to Patel while leaving the organization. It clearly indicates that a program was scheduled for transaction of the slush money on November 15, 2007.

From a document signed by Mishra, it transpires that he, as the GM of the Samaja, had “unearthed misappropriation of Rs.97,08,500.00 from the accounts of the Samaja”. And had “taken action” against Braja bhai and others for the same.

But that, Braja bhai was framed up to keep the real culprit under cover, is clear from what Mishra has told Patel in his letter No. 253/GM/2007 dated 25.07.2007. In this letter, he has told Patel, “Had I not saved you, instead of you driving out Braja Bhai from life membership by invoking the emergency power under the provision of the constitution of the SoPS as per my suggestion, you would have been removed by Braja Bhai with sufficient adverse evidences against you”.

So it is clear that Mishra had suggested Patel to dismiss Braja Bhai from SoPS by invoking emergency powers of the President. With this confession of Mishra, it is also clear that he had willfully implicated Braja Bhai in the misappropriation case to save the skin of Manubhai and his two other partners in the crime, namely Manorama Mohapatra and Satya Paul.

And, therefore, to us it is clear that Braja Bhai has not committed the misappropriation as alleged. A highlander by birth, born in Mayurbhanj, he is by nature a simple man, too proud to commit crimes like misappropriation of funds of the paper he had given a new birth to. Employees gratefully remember how he had spent days and nights to help some of them get deadicted. Employees gratefully remember how he had for the first time given them refreshment environment in honor of their human rights. He is a man, who, employees believe, cannot misappropriate the funds of the Samaja he is so devoted to.

Onus lies on the management of the Samaja and the police to prove their charges against Braja Bhai; but for so many years they have been limping and the false charges are continuing to harass the man willfully framed up by the stooges of the real culprits, as Dandanirodh’s letter to Manubhai Patel reveals.

Patel makes SoPS a sanctuary of retired rouges

When Patel has recaptured SoPS by way of a forged election, which according to the District Judge of Cuttack in F.A.O. No 113 of 2012, “appears to have no prima-facie sanction of the Constitution of SoPS”, a retired IAS officer S.C.Mantry has been used as GM to file cases against Braja Bhai.

It seems, he has a history of using retired rogues from IAS cadre to conduct illegal operations in the Samaja, specifically in prosecuting Braja Bhai; because, prior to Mantry, as confessed by retired IAS officer Dandanirodh Mishra, he was also used by Patel to put Braja Bhai behind the bars.

The confession of Mishra has manifested in his parting letter to Manubhai Patel when he has told him, “had I not taken the right step at the right time, I am afraid, now you would have been in jail instead of Sri Braja Bhai”. He has admitted that he had taken the so-called “right step at the right time” to send Braja Bhai into the judicial custody in order only to safeguard the “prestige and safety” of Manubhai Patel.

Another retired IAS officer – K.C.Mahapatra – was also planted by Manubhai to exploit the Samaja and to serve his personal interests at the cost of the paper, Mishra has said.

In Para 6 of his parting letter, he has narrated how Manubhai had taken Mahapatra as his adviser “with authority that he shall render advice and report on any issue relating to the business of SoPS in Orissa in particular reference to the Samaja”. Mahapatra was given all the powers to intervene in every matter of the paper including editorial policies and business processes. And the Samaja was to bear the burden of his personal expenses and to look after his comforts. But, all this was designed to help Mahapatra use the influence of the Samaja for personal business in which Manubhai has his share. “As Shri Mahapatra is constructing a Hotel near Rasulgarh of Bhubaneswar, his appointment was an award to him at the expenses of the Samaja in exchange of his service in the game-plan to expedite my oust from the organization”, Mishra has noted.

Dubious board of advisers

Now a pack of retired fellows from various wings of civil services have been appointed as advisers of the Samaja. These fellows have neither any experience nor any expertise in journalism.

Senior journalist Prasanta Patnaik has challenged them in social media like the facebook to reveal as to what sort of function they are performing in the paper and why have they accepted the appointment as advisers when they know they have no journalistic contributions to make and nowhere in newspaper establishments such advisers are appointed and provided for in either wage boards or Press Commission reports.

To us, the nefarious design is contrived to subjugate journalistic wisdom to idiocrasies of non-journalists.

“Remove Braja Bhai by hook or by crook”

That Patel has the uncommon knack for using retired IAS and IPS officers to defend himself in difficult situations and to offend and harass whomsoever he feels to be disadvantageous to his personal ambitions is well on records by confession of Dandanirodh Mishra, whom he had used to victimize Braja Bhai.

Dandanirodh was recruited by Patel for the post of GM of the Samaja and used by him to remove Braja Bhai from position and then was pushed into a situation where there was no way for him than resigning.

He has confessed this in the following term in his parting letter addressed to Manubhai: “I think, the sole purpose for which you brought me to the organization – to remove Braja Bhai by hook or by crook – has already been achieved and you do not require me any further”.

The fellows now basking under epithets like advisors may gain by going through the experience of Dandanirodh Mishra.

Truth peeps out

Mishra’s parting letter is relevant in many respects.

He had unearthed a misappropriation amounting to Rs. 97, 08,500.00 from the accounts of the Samaja. Out of this amount, a sum of Rs. 47, 08,500.00 was misappropriated by Sri Satya Paul, life member and close associate of Manubhai Patel. Mishra says that he was “pressurized not to take any action against Shri Satya Paul in the misappropriation of a sum of Rs. 47,08,500.00” even though the misappropriation case was instituted on the FIR lodged by him.

Manubhai’s readiness to pledge support of the Samaja to chief minister Naveen Patnaik for Rs. 50.00 lakhs added to the amount allegedly misappropriated by Satya Paul makes out the total sum of 97,08,500.00, which, according to Mishra’s FIR was misappropriated from the accounts of the Samaja.

Was Manubhai the man who misappropriated the sum of Rs. 50.00 lakhs from the Samaja and on unearthing of the same, had tried to organize the said amount from slush funds that Naveen Patnaik was handling, in order to set the records of the Samaja funds right?

Mishra has not told of that. But he has revealed in no uncertain terms that after the FIR was lodged by him, he was “called twice to Delhi to meet them (Shri I. K. Gujral and Justice R. Sachar – the trustees) in the residence of Shri I. K. Gujral (former Prime Minister of India) to explain everything pertaining to the misappropriation of Rs.97,08,500.00” when in those meetings, Manubhai along with Shri P. M. Mehta, Shri Omkar Chand, Shri Ranjit Singh and Shri Satya Paul were also remaining present.

“A lot of pressure was put on me to release a sum of Rs. 75.00 lakhs approximately in favor of M/s Poddar Global Ltd as per their claim”, Mishra has said.

Police/CBI investigation is necessary

It needs police /CBI investigation to ascertain if the misappropriated money of the Samaja, at least the sum of Rs.50.00 lakhs for which needle of suspicion points to Manubhai, was to be adjusted from that payment. Such investigation may gain from analyzing as to why Dandaniraodh has told Manubhai that he would have been in jail instead of Braja Bhai had he not saved him and why he feels that Democle’s sword is hanging on Manubhai, Manorama Mohapatra and Satya Paul linking the same to Braja bhai’s statement in course of investigation.

Investigation is also required on whether, as revealed by Dandanirodh Mishra, on 15 November 2006, Manubhai Patel was to receive Rs. 50.00 lakhs clandestinely from Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, which was abandoned in fear of sting cameras and if that “programme” was “scheduled”, for what purpose the CM was to give him that money.

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The Pipili imbroglio: It is necessary to look at the other side of The Samaja Scenario

Posted on January 8, 2013 by Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak
The people of Orissa on whose contributions Utkalmani’s newspaper ‘The Samaja’ runs, are being force-fed with condemnation of the Police over its failure to act against the people of Pipili who had obstructed the traffic on Bhubaneswar-Puri road on January 05 at the appliqué square, where one of the gang of alleged hijackers of the paper, Sri Niranjan Rath is said to have been hackled for a news that damaged the area image.

The Samaja asserts that ruling party MLA of Pipili Pradip Maharathi had instigated the people to burn the paper and to hackle Sri Rath when he was on his way to Puri.

In the next day edition, editor of the paper had apologized to people of Pipili in a front page box for the embarrassment caused to them by publishing a wrong information, though, according him, that was not intentional. But he simultaneously editorialized on necessity of the Chief Minister sizing the MLA of his party.

Yet, on the following day it stressed on arrest of Sri Maharathi.

Opinions generated in its favor were also given full page publicity on January 07.
Today, the paper begins with a banner castigating the Police for no action on allegation against the MLA and the people of Pipili.

Precious news space is also massively misspent on Rath’s byline streamer in expression of gratitude to whosoever has condemned the action of the people of Pipili.

Thus, the allegedly illegitimate occupiers of ‘The Samaja’, who use the name of the Servants of the People Society (SoPS) to brandish their authority over the paper, have been condemning the Police for having not taken action against the Pipili MLA and the Pipili people.

But the Samaja scenario has two sides involving the occupiers of The Samaja and the Police.

The legitimate authority of SoPS, Prof. K.C.Tripathi has filed information on criminal activities of these fellows on the basis of investigations conducted by an inquiry committee headed by Justice Arijit Pasayat, retired Judge of the Supreme Court of India and other evidences gathered through in-house investigations and located in files of The Samaja as well as its sister organizations.

Tripathi’s allegations have been registered as FIRs in Economic Offense Wing of Delhi Crime Branch, Khuntuni Police Station in the Cuttach Rural Police District as well as in the Cantonment Police Station of Cuttack City.

But, the cases are left in the lurch, as the very same fellows are in a position to browbeat the investigating officers.

The Director General of Police of the State knows that the two Police Stations under his control are sleeping over the cases against these fellows.

The allegations are so serious that if the police would not have been put under leash, the criminal law jurisprudence system could have been invoked since long against the very same persons that are misusing news space of The Samaja in condemning the police for lack of prompt action against the people of Pipili and their MLA.

These fellows are accused in cases registered in various Police Stations.

I would like to focus on the Cantonment P.S. for the time being.

The Inspector-in-charge of this P.S. is so very afraid of media power under the command of these occupiers of The Samaja, that, he is not even daring to rise up, in spite of judicial directions from the High Court of Orissa. Even information filed by a low paid machine helper of the paper, Surendra Behera, against criminal intimidation and forceful detention by a man appointed as an inquiry officer, in his attempt to cultivate proofs against innocent employees, is thrown into the dustbin of the P.S. without being registered.
The fellows including ministers that have condemned Maharathi and the people of Pipili for their protest against the The Samaja ought to know that foul play on their area image had given birth to that mass action in a conniption.

If thereby, that was an attack on freedom of Press, how are they going to treat the police inaction against transformation of The Samaja into a sanctuary of fellows accused of serious crimes involving forgery and embezzlement of the Samaja funds?

Will they respond to allegations that freedom of Press is used to muzzle the Police in the cases raised against these fellows by Prof. Tripathi as well as by the machine helper Sri Behera?

It is time for all lovers of freedom of Press and rule of law to look at these both sides of the Samaja scenario and to force the Police to act against the miscreants that have been misusing media power to muzzle the Police in matter of allegations against themselves on the one hand and on the other, to reprimand the police for failure to act against whosoever they want to prosecute.

The Police should also make their position clear.

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New Year Exposure // Orissa Chief Minister suspected to have acted a Comprador

Posted on January 1, 2013 by Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

With Naveen Patnaik as the Chief Minister, it was not possible for the State Government to say ‘no’ to Reliance. Hence the government contrived an idea to shift Orissa’s busiest Bus terminus from Badambadi of Cuttack to a new venue in order to help Ambani acquire the most precious land in the most densely populated City.

Orissa High Court in a recent judgment has quashed that allocation to Reliance.

But when the conspiracy was being cooked up, in order to eliminate possible public outcry over the design, the administration was used to convince the people that the most densely populated ancient City of the State needs a large ultramodern Bus terminus in a vastly specious open land in the outskirts.

the foundation stoneFor this purpose, Naveen had laid the foundation of the new Bus stand in Sector 15 of Abhinav Bidanasi of Cuttack Municipal Corporation, on February 10, 2004 on a very vast picturesque stretch of open land adjoining the Naraj Barrage Bungalow on the bank of River Kathjory overlooking the great water body created by the Barrage.

Besides the Mayor of Cuttack Ms.Nibedita Pradhan and Deputy Mayor Madhusudan Sahu, Corporators Dharmesh Nayak and Pramod Behera, the political acolytes of Naveen Patnaik that had witnessed the foundation were Cuttack MP Bhartruhari Mahtab, Urban Development Minister and a resident of Cuttack City Samir De, Works Minister Kalandi Behera, Housing Development Minister and a resident of Cuttack City Ranendra Pratap Swain, and Finance (State) Minister Panchanan Kanungo. Even as the above named occupiers of Cuttack Municipal Corporation have been rejected by the city inhabitants, except Mahtab, all other occupiers of ministerial berths have lost their positions. Swain was unceremoniously dismissed from the council of ministers for reasons known only to Naveen Patnaik and then debarred from contesting the Assembly polls through the kitchen room conspiracy. He fought against the man whom Naveen had helped to bag his constituency and won the battle in the Supreme Court and then won the by-election that has put him back in the Assembly as a member. Behera, who had to resign from the cabinet on exposure of his conduct as the patron of hooch killers, now represents the constituency of Cuttack Sadar, where, in the climate of reservation of constituencies for Scheduled Caste people, he was just a Hobson’s choice.

All the above witnesses to the foundation of Baimundi Bus Stand laid by the Chief Minister on February 10, 2004, have personal, social, economic and political interest in the Cuttack City. Yet within these eight years, none of them has queried about what happened to the said Bus stand. None of them has asked Naveen Patnaik as to why the area developed by the Cuttack Development Authority with huge investment from the State Exchequer, was not proceeding with the construction of the Bus stand, even though, as political activists, they have been witnessing that the Badambadi Bus stand has been creating massive traffic hazards due to inadequacy of its compound and shrinkage thereof due to Naveen’s love with land grabbers like Reliance.

What, then, has happened to the land of the Baimundi Bus stand, conceived, created, and projected as the best alternative to Badambadi?

As a new proposal to shift the Badambadi Bus Terminus to a new location in Gopalpur area on entrance to the city from Bhubaneswar side is put on the anvil, I visited the Baimundi Bus Stand site with Pabitra Maharatha, Convener of Orissa Nadi Suraksha Abhijan, who, as a resident of Cuttack city, had attended the February 10, 2004 event, to find why that project was abandoned. A young Lawyer Ayushman Mahant, who specializes in environment law, was with us.

the gate and boundary under construction
We found the area being bound by high-quality metal grills with king size gates behind the foundation stone. To our query as to why the boundary has left out the foundation stone, a uniformed man guarding the area told us that, the boundary was not of the Bus stand, but of Brindavan Garden, that has occupied the land. He could not tell us anything about Brindavan Guarden; but informed that the grill-boundary was being constructed by the officer-in-charge of the barrage.

The barrage authorities are keeping mum about the Brindavan Gardens, even though their body language suggests that they know everything about hijacking of the Bus Terminus land by Brundavan Garden.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is the Minister in charge and only an idiot can believe that the hijacking of the land he had laid foundation on for the Baimundi Bus Stand has been taken over by Brundavan Garden without his knowledge and cooperation. Construction of the metal grill-boundary around the land by barrage officials strengthens the suspicion that the land is hijacked by the help of the Chief Minister.

Believing that public memory is short, instead of uttering a single word on the Baimundi Bus Stand, the shifting of the Bus Stand from Badambadi to a new location at Gopalpur is being trumpeted. So, it is clear that the Baimundi Bus Stand project is killed clandestinely.

If it is so, then Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik owes an answer to the public as to why this project for which he had laid the foundation stone in 2004 is so clandestinely killed.

the land on the barragethe barrage
And as the Water Resources Department is constructing the iron grill boundary of Brundavan Gardens on the Bus Stand land, the Chief Minister who holds the said department should also tell the public, who this Brundavan Garden belongs to and why his department is constructing the boundary of this garden.

This is necessary; because, whomsoever member of the local public we talked to is suspecting that the Chief Minister has acted a comprador to help Brindavan Garden acquire this vast precious picturesque land of immense public importance and interest by causing clandestine termination of the Baimundi Bus Terminus of which he himself had laid the foundation stone on February 10, 2004.

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The Labor Authorities must wake up against unfair labor practices by The Samaja Occupiers

Posted on December 12, 2012 by Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

The Servants of the People Society (SoPS), which is suspected to have occupied The Samaja by forging a Will of its founder Pt. Gopabandhu Das, has some life members that are spotted for moral turpitude and funds embezzlement. To preempt legal action, these tainted members have tampered with records of the society and occupied its office, brandishing an election that was never held. The known and legitimate authority of SoPS – K.C.Tripathi – has challenged this false election in appropriate legal forums in Orissa, which is pending.

The occupiers of office have not yet established their legitimacy as office bearers of SoPS. But these fellows have resorted to various unfair labor practices to intimidate the employees and have apparently influenced material officers of the labor department, as a result of which, the employees’ complaint against such illegality is not being attended to by the concerned officers in right earnest.

Samaj OfficeThe multi-editional Samaja has around 400 journalist and non-journalist employees. But, it has no legitimate Standing Orders as required under the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946. The Utkalmani Newspaper Employees Association, the only and duly recognized Trade Union of employees of the Samaja has attracted the attention of the Labor Commissioner (LC) repeatedly to this malady. The LC has been sleeping over the issue.

To impress their legitimacy upon the Court, the occupiers of SoPS are forcing the Samaja employees to carry out their orders, howsoever wrong, whimsical and capricious that be.

As for example, Dr. Satya Ray, executive editor, has been arbitrarily transferred to Sambalpur, even though his retirement on superannuation is knocking at the doors. But, while continuing at Sambalpur, he is dragged back to Cuttack to undertake a judicial lobby for the illegal occupiers of The Samaja using his personal relationship with a senior Judge.

According to confidential sources, he is assured of editorship of the paper if he succeeds in this secret mission.

Another Executive Editor Dr. Pramod Mohapatra, to his shock and everybody’s astonishment, has been subjected to humiliation by being drafted to sell books in the book fares.

They have even transferred the President of the Association, Sub-Editor Devi Prasanna Nayak to Kolkata by a back-dated letter, suggesting that his services were essentially required there; but have put him under suspension immediately thereafter on cooked up grounds.

One Bhimasen Jadav, suspended from SoPS for his illegalities, proclaiming himself as the chairman of the Samaja Board of Management wanted all employees to meet him in the evening of July 2, 2012. Sri Nayak being the President of the Trade Union of the employees had wanted to know if the known office bearers of the SoPS have handed over charges to him and his group and if he and his group have taken over the charges. This query irritated Sri Jadav and his group. As it was earlier known to everybody that Sri Jadav was suspended and removed, the employees thought it prudent to wait for any instruction from the known authority of SoPS, Vice-President Sri K.C.Tripathi, who, to everybody’s knowledge was functioning as Officiating President on being delegated with the functions.

Sri Tripathi in his Order dated 3 July 2012 addressed to all the employees, made it clear that, “No such Board of Management is in existence for Samaja”. And in the same order, Sri Tripathi called all employees to a meeting at 3 PM the same day in Gopabandhu Bhawan and advised all employees to remain present. Accordingly all employees had gone to the meeting and had taken his orders, that, no employee should obey any instruction of Jadav and his group.

After Sri Tripathi’s meeting was over, which all the employees had attended, S.C.Mantry, General Manager, issued an order of transfer of Sri Nayak from Cuttack to Kolkata in the guise of “exigencies of work” which was back dated 2nd July 2012. And, simultaneously, on the same day, i.e. 3rd July 2012, Sri Nayak was put under suspension “pending framing of formal charges” fixing his headqrs at Kolkata. On coming to know of this, the Officiating President of SoPS, Sri K.C.Tripathi cancelled all these orders by his order dated 3rd July 2012 and asked Mantry to go on leave.

Even as Sri Nayak had given a preliminary reply to the GM in his letter dated 25 July 2012, the Association in its communication No. 16/GS/12 dated 15.8.2012 besought Sri Tripathi’s opinion on the issue, as he was the known authority of SoPS.

Sri Tripathi, in his order dated August 20, 2012 directed the employees to “ignore” any order/instruction received from persons like S.C.Mantry/ Bhimsen Jadav/ Niranjan Rath/Manubhai Patel and any other posing as any manager or functionary of SoPS, as they are unauthorized persons.

The unauthorized persons have not yet been able to establish their legitimacy in the Court where Sri Tripathi’s case against them is pending. And hence, they have not created any legitimate environment for the Trade Union/employees to accept them as legitimate authorities to issue orders/instructions.

On the other hand, these unauthorized persons through hired hands as security personnel have obstructed Sri Nayak’s entry into his legitimate workplace in Gopabandhu Bhawan, Cuttack.

Worried because of such tactics of enforced idleness clamped on Sri Nayak, the Association moved the Labor law implementation authorities on 25.8.2012 vide their letter No. 19/GS/12 for intervention. The District Labor Officer, Cuttack in his order No. 4305 dated 31.8.2012, in forwarding a copy of the petition of the Employees Association, asked for the views of employer within seven days.

The General Manager who received the notice from the DLO is the same Sri Mantry who continues to keep the office of The Samaja in capture in blatant disobedience to the orders of the legitimate authority of SoPS, Sri K.C.Tripathy. In such circumstances, the DLO’s letter was perhaps suppressed from the employer and then the illegitimate occupiers of the Samaja appointed a man called C. R. Dash as enquiry officer to add a color of legality to the illegal orders issued by the name of the employer.

Sri Nayak attracted attention of the officiating President of SoPS to this and wanted his instruction in view of his order dated 20.8.2012. The officiating President of SoPS, Sri Tripathi, in his order dated 20.10.2012, informed that neither SoPS nor he has drawn any disciplinary proceeding against him as there was no allegation to draw up a disciplinary proceeding and also, there was no enquiry officer appointed. Hence he advised Sri Nayak to ignore the communication from the so-called enquiry officer.

Thus, without any legitimate authority, but in collusion with the illegitimate occupiers of The Samaja, Dash is holding the enquiry.

This Dash has, in collusion with the illegal occupiers of The Samaja, tarnished the public image of Sri Nayak through malicious advertisement in the Samaja dated 31. 10.2012 and is engaged in cultivating evidences against Sri Nayak, which is now clear from a complaint filed in Cantonment Police Station of Cuttack by an employee of the Samaja, who was forced by Dash to sign on dotted lines.

This complainant to Police is Machine man helper Sri Surendra Behera.

Behera, who works in the night, was summoned to the Office of the Samaja at about the noon on 3. 12.2012 by an assistant manager HR under a false plea of rectification of tax anomalies. After he reached the office, he was taken to the enquiry officer who forced him to receive a backdated summon to attend his court. The so-called enquiry officer then forced him to corroborate allegations against Sri Nayak which he refused. Then, under intimidation, he was asked to wait in the room to sign whatever dictation the enquiry officer was giving to a typist. Sri Behera refused to comply with this illegal order and reported the matter to Cantonment P.S., Cuttack, immediately thereafter on the same 3rd December 2012. The Police are yet to act.

Thus it is clear that the harassers of Nayak are cooking up a domestic enquiry to harass him further. The matter has been reported by the Secretary of the Employees Association to the District Labor Officer.

But the Labor Officer is yet to wake up, as is the Labor Commissioner in the matter of contravention of the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders ) Act, 1946 by the management of The Samaja.

Filed under: administration, Animadversion, Employees' Issues, law and order, media, news, orissa, politics, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Employees raise Dispute against under-dose of wages in ‘The Samaja’

Posted on November 4, 2012 by Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

The President of Utkalmani Newspaper Employees Association, Sri Devi Prasanna Nayak has raised a dispute over under-dose of wages in a mail sent to President of the Servants of the People Society, New Delhi.

He has said,

“Even as the Servants of the People Society has not made us know of the annual gross revenue of The Samaja, from various sources it has come to our knowledge that the gross revenue of the paper exceeds Rs.1000 crores per annum. On this basis, we are entitled to wages applicable to newspapers of class-1 category.
Instead of paying us wages in the scale of Class-1 category papers, you have been paying us in the scale recommended for papers belonging to class-IV category.
Therefore, we demand, our pay scale is immediately raised to that of the newspapers in Class-1 category with retrospective effect as required under the Act.”

Sri Nayak has given the SoPS a week’s time for the purpose.

Filed under: actionscript, media, news, orissa, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

The Samaja in Deathbed: Crime Branch must address itself to Felonies perpetrated by Servants of the People Society

Posted on October 13, 2012 by Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Ulkalmani Pt. Gopabandhu Das’ newspaper The Samaja is a victim of felonies perpetrated by the Servants of the People Society.

I had, in these pages, exposed how possibly the SoPS has hijacked the paper and its press and properties by forging a Will of Gopabandhu after his sad demise.

Possibly, Pandit Lingaraj Mishra, then a life member of SoPS, with a motive to grab editorship of the popular paper by ensuring his society’s ownership over it, forged the Will. Mishra had a strong political ambition and the paper’s editorship had helped him tremendously in achieving the same.

Radhanath Rath, decorated with Padma Bhushan, India’s third highest civilian award, for literature and education, in the specific field of journalism as editor of the Samaja, was hand-in-glove with Mishra and was the other highest beneficiary of the forgery if at all Mishra had done it. So, there was no inkling from Rath’s side on the suspected forgery, even though he knew that the purported Will lying under his custody was not signed by Gopabandhu.

After I stumbled upon the document that smacked of the forgery, I deemed it proper to place the matter before the public.

Editor of Janatantra, Vivekanand Dash translated my report into Oriya and published the same in the first fortnight edition of his paper in August 2012, thus making the information reach the readers beyond Internet.

On the other hand, an organization namely ‘Save The Samaja Forum’ (hereinafter called the Forum) was formed, which demanded that the SoPS must make its position clear on the issue of the suspicion that Gopabandhu’s will used by SoPS to occupy the Samaja, was not a genuine will, but a forged one.

The SoPS kept mum.

On the other hand, it forced the editor of the Samaja to black out the press statement of the Forum and, instead, to hurl abuses at the leaders of the Forum, which he did through a quarter-page display in the front page of the Samaja on 30 August 2012.

The forum has written to the Registrar of Newspapers for India to verify the ownership of the Samaja as the SoPS has no legitimacy, unless proved otherwise, in claiming ownership over the paper and, if the said society fails to produce the genuine will of Gopabandhu in original, to take action against it for filing of false declaration.

Utkalmani Pt. Gopabandhu Das is a national icon of Orissa. Capturing of his paper and property through a forged will is a crime that cannot be condoned. If the Crime Branch in Orissa is working with honesty, I believe, it will take up investigation into this felony and help us know – in view of total silence of SoPS in the matter – the entire gamut of the crime perpetrated and the entire amount of money swindled from the income of the Samaja by the SoPS and the two late editors – Lingaraj Mishra and Radhanath Rath – who were the ones that had, besides being the editors, headed the management of the paper as well as the Orissa branch of SoPS.

Contextually it may be mentioned here for attention of the Orissa Crime Branch that a captive investigation committee of SoPS, headed by Justice (Rtd) Arijit Pasayat is on records to have marked embezzlement of the Samaja funds to the tune to several hundreds of crores of rupees by certain members of SoPS and their cronies in the management of the Samaja, over and above misappropriation of massive amount of money in the Samaja office itself through fabricated records as unveiled by an earlier probe conducted by Dr. Nilakanth Rath.

So, by occupying the Samaja through a will of Gopabandhu that convincingly appears to be a forged document, the SoPS have created a menacing history of continuous corruption and misappropriation of the paper’s revenues.

The State cannot sit silently on this crime. Therefore, the Crime Branch must address itself to these felonies with immediate effect.

Filed under: administration, Animadversion, Editorials, law and order, media, news, orissa, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

The Samaja in Death Bed: Servants of the People Society Seems to have Occupied it on the Basis of a Fake Will

Posted on August 8, 2012 by Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

The Samaja, as a newspaper, was so powerful that the ‘Inquiry Committee’ headed by former Supreme Court Judge, Justice Dr. Arijit Pasayat, constituted to investigate into various alleged frauds practiced in the organization, could not dare to sum up the financial embezzlements and other severe malpractices, despite evidences.

Nevertheless, the Committee’s Report, unanimously accepted by the Executive Council of the Servants of the People Society (SoPS) that has occupied the Paper and its Press since passing away of its founder, Pundit Gopabandhu Das, in its meeting on 28 February 2011, deserves keen attention. It said:

“The Samaja, unlike other newspapers, is not the property of any individual or group of persons. It belongs to the people of Orissa who are emotionally attached to the newspaper”.

So, people of Orissa are genuinely concerned as financial frauds and vulturous attacks on each other by members and functionaries of SoPS continue to cause havoc to its life.

Justice Arijit Pasayat Committee has shown, how its circulation and revenue has been falling over the years. What could have happened when the corrupt and criminal elements are so active in its management?

There are cases in the courts. There are captivating verdicts too.

There are who-purchases-whom-competitions. There are who-dismisses-whom battles.

There is chaos and anarchy in every sphere of the once reigning newspaper of the State, as, functionaries are allegedly looting its funds, misusing its assets, working as commission agents, sans any qualms, sans any punishment.

Some of its employees, some of the local intelligentsia, out of sheer emotional love for the paper, have been posting evidences of how corruption is eating away The Samaja in a new website they have ventured in the name and style of http://www.savesamaja.com and as reported in these pages, members of the public have started campaigns to save the paper from the SoPS comprising some corrupt fellows.

But in a age when law is a conundrum, the paper may not at all escape the labyrinth of frauds.

The labyrinth of fraud seems to have engulfed The Samaja ever since the death of its founder, Utkalmani Pundit Gopabandhu Das.

Gopabandhu’s Will seems not genuine

As I have hinted to in my earlier reports on affairs of The Samaja, Gopabandhu’s death was used by a group of persons, who, during his life were somewhat seen in his proximity, to manufacture a Will in a style that may look like a genuine reduction to writing of his detection. The said group had spread the news that Gopabandhu had made a Will to hand over his Paper and Press to the SoPS. The people of Orissa had no reason to disbelieve the news as it was coming from the mouth of persons considered close to Gopabandhu, who was also closely connected with SoPS. Had the so called Will been instantly displayed before the public, might be, some of the public could have looked at the document critically and tried to study if it was genuine. But the document was kept a guarded secret and the public was fed with the information that SoPS had probated the Will a few years later and taken over The Samaja and Satyavadi Press in accordance with the wishes of Gopabandhu.

Now as I try to reach the base of SoPS’s control over The Samaja, I come across a document, published circumstantially in its edition of July 7, 1986, that depicts the true photo-copy of the Will of Gopabandhu.

It convinces me, that, the so-called Will is a fake Will.

The main reason of this, is that, Gopabandhu has not signed it.

It is claimed that the Will was dictated by Gopabandhu on his “death bed”. Did he died instantly after giving the dictation, so that he could not sign the Will? Not believable. The language and paragraphing of the Will, and the preferences of distribution of his properties inscribed therein, could not have been such, had Gopabandhu not been in a strong and stable condition at the time of giving the dictation. So, had he really given the dictation, he should have signed it. The absence of his signature on the Will document makes it clear that the Will is not genuine.

This is a serious phenomenon. The SoPS must come forward with authentic documents, if any under its possession, to establish that the Will on which it has occupied The Samaja is not a fraudulent document. Otherwise, it must have to relinquish The Samaja and the State must have to initiate necessary prosecution against the fraud.

Filed under: Animadversion, Editorials, law and order, media, news, politics, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments »

The Samaja in Death bed: Mass Protest Against Villainy of Servants of the People Society

Posted on August 5, 2012 by Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

People of Cuttack, the native city of Orissa’s most senior daily broadsheet, The Samaja, which by default belongs to the ownership of the people of Orissa, in a mass meeting on August 4, have resolved to save their beloved paper from the death bed to which villainy of the Servants of the People Society (SoPS) has thrown it through corrupt methods.

We, in orissamatters.com, have been trying since many days to bring the mischief to public attention.

The SoPS is suspected to have usurped The Samaja by tricks after its founder Pt. Gopabandhu Das – then a star member of the said society – passed away on 17 June 1928.

And, as some of the influential luminaries of the then Orissa were part of this trick, the bereaved family of Pt. Das as well as the people of Orissa, then under the grip of extreme grief over the unbearable demise of their beloved leader, could not grasp the suspected mischief of the usurpers.

And, the post Gopabandhu editors of The Samaja and the Oriyas in SoPS did not share the truth, if any they knew, with the people, for the reasons best known to themselves.

Thus, the SoPS has been able to keep the paper under its iron control and using its entire income according to its vested interest members’ motives and preferences.

In the process, internecine rivalry among the members and office bearers of SoPS has turned so acrimonious that, like vultures attack each other over sharing a carcass, they are attacking each other and their putrefying quarrels are making commotions in courts and police stations.

In the hands of SoPS. The Samaja of the people of Orissa is dying a slow death.

At, this juncture, therefore, the Cuttack mass meeting to save The Samaja is certainly a very welcome development.

Held under the chairmanship of former Vice-Chancellor Dr. Sk. Kamruddin Khan, the meeting was addressed by the President of Cuttack Surksha Committee Saroj Kumar Singh, Pradip Pradhan, Pramod Rautray, Parbati Das, Dipak Banarjee, Bijay Chakravarty, Nakula Raut, Bainshidhar Nayak, Sarat Sahu, Udayanath Prusti, Sukanti Mohanty and others, who vowed to stop SoPS swindling further funds of The Samaja, which entirely belongs to the people of Orissa. Mahanagara Ekata Committee, Baliyatra Vyabasayi Sangha, Chetana Chakra, Bharata Vikash Sangam, Nababarsha Mahotsav Committee, C.E.C.P., Mahidas Bazar Yuvak Sangha, Nikhila Utkala Barika Sangha, Cuttack Zilla Akhada Sangha and various Puja Committees of Cuttack took the vow too.

Filed under: Employees' Issues, law and order, media, news, orissa, politics, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , | 3 Comments »

Poet Pramod Mohanty Felicitated with Bishuba Samman

Posted on April 13, 2012 by Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Famous poet, Prof. Pramod Mohanty has been felicitated with the 63rd annual Bishuba Samman, founded by Dr. Harekrushna Mahtab and Prajatantra Prachar Samiti, Cuttack.

Author of many works of poetry, such as Kramash, Debipada, Alagakuha et cetera, Prof. Mohanty has got national award from Indian Academy of Letters for his book ‘Asaranti Anasara’.

We feel proud in congratulating him for Orissa’s oldest eminent award for literature of highest order.

Filed under: art & culture, news, orissa, oriya | Tagged: , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

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