Orissa Matters

It is urgent for the Congress to declare KPCC chief as Chief Minister

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Thanks to Rahul Gandhi’s unique endeavour to unite India (Bharat Joda), people of Karnataka have handed over their fate to the Congress Party and with that have given a sharp slap to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose insistence to make India free from Congress has harmed the country like never before.

But, sadly, we find a cold competition amongst a few victorious MLAs to achieve the top political position of the State.

This is not unnatural on part of the politicians. They are ambitious. Unless controlled by the national leadership, personal ambition of the provincial leaders would lead to internecine quarrel and ruin the decision of the people to handover their power to the Congress.

Therefore, the Congress national leadership must have to act urgently. It should decide and promulgate a principle that the PCC President under whose organisational stewardship the party bags majority of Assembly seats must lead the Government in the State and leave the PCC President post creating a situation for election of a new leader of the Party. If the new leader leads the party to victory in the next election, he should also be declared automatically the new leader of the legislative wing.

This principle, unless adopted and promulgated, eventual horse-trading would weaken the victorious party and frustrate the people that have used their mind and wisdom to reject BJP in Karnataka.

Investigation needs be made to find if there is nexus between the illicit users of Gopabandhu’s forged WILL and top IT officials

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

The illicit users of Pt. Gopabandhu Das’s forged will, Lok Sevak Mandal (The Servants of the People Society, hereinafter the ‘Society’), recently presented Ms. Paramita Satpathy Tripathy as its chief speaker in the annual function of its new mischief styled ‘Gopabandhunka Satyabadi’. The function held in Cuttack was reported by Sandeep Choudhury, Reporter of its main weapon ‘The Samaja’ on the 2nd of April. The Society’s claim to be a charitable body entitled to tax exemption is invalid due to a Supreme Court Order that has asked for the Tax Assessing Officer to “examine” and “render fresh findings” on the issue “whether it is a charitable trust, entitled to exemption of its income”.The Supreme Court has ordered the AO to “complete the hearing and pass orders within four months” from January 31, 2023. The Society can go to any extent to cultivate a favourable finding by the AO. The AO is a junior officer in the hierarchy where Paramita is in a top position.She is currently the Commissioner of Income Tax-Appeal at New Delhi. The timing of the Society inviting her to its function and her acceptance of the invitation looks quite curious and provokes one to brood if there is any nexus between the offenders and top IT officials.

Ms. Paramita, according to this official report of the illicit users of Gopabandhu’s forged will, lauded the activities of the Society by telling the public how perfectly it has been serving the cause of the Oriyas as was envisaged by Pt. Gopabandhu. This happened when credibility of the Society as a charitable body is in serious Income tax investigations.

The brutally exploited workers of The Samaja and the Satyabadi Press are in several industrial disputes against the Society. It was established basically to train future political leaders. But under the guise of generating funds to carry out its purpose, it has been running business and commerce. It is using this fund against the workers in fighting industrial disputes raised by them. Moreover, in the Labour Court, it has been found to have forged signatures of Journalists in order to deprive them of their legetimate salaries.Pitambar Mishra is an instance. Evidences gallore on how the Society has made the Samaja a hub of misappropriation of its revenues. Yet, by posing as as a charitable body, it had been enjoying income tax exemptions. Exempting Income Taxt in favour of this Society is nothing but denial of legetimate funds to the Exchequre so that a corrupt organisation can amass money to carry out illicit activities.

As all the Income Tax Authorities are not stuffs to be hoodwinked, the tax exemption was done away with by an assessment officer against which the Society had preferred an appeal. Delhi Bench ‘A’ of Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) in ITA No. 4984/Del/2015 for the Assessment Year 2011-12 allowed the appeal by accepting the plea of the society that it was “carrying the mandate of the Will of Late Shri Gopa Bandhu Dass in running the printing press and the newspaper and the income so generated is used for charitable purposes” with “no profit motive” in its activities. Accepting the plea, the Appellate Tribunal allowed the appeal, holding that the Society, in view of its adherence to the will of Pt. Gopabandhu Das, “cannot be said” to have been “involved in any trade, commerce or business and as such the mischief of the Proviso of section 2(15) is not apparently attracted.”

Aggrieved by this decision, the Principal Commissioner of Income Tax, Delhi preferred an appeal in the Delhi High Court, where the appeal was also dismissed on the same ground.

The Principal Commissioner of Income Tax (Exemption) Delhi invoked the Civil Appellate Jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of India in Civil Appeal NO(S). 614 OF 2023 against the Order of the High Court that upheld the decision of the ITAT.

What should be a charitable organisation to justify tax exemption has been determined by the Supreme Court in the Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority case. Therefore, the claim of the Society as a charitable organisation justifying exemption of Income Tax shall have to be examined on the matrix of this decision, the Supreme Court Bench comprising Justice S. Ravindra Bhat and Justice Dipankar Datta has held.

“In the present case, the Appellate Commissioner, the ITAT and the High Court merely followed the judgment of the Delhi High Court in India Trade Promotion Organisation. However, the law with regard to interpretation of Section 2 (15) has undergone a change, due to the decision in Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority (supra). As a result, this court is of the opinion, that the matter should be remitted for fresh consideration of the nature of receipts in the hands of the assessee (the Society), in the present case. As a result, the matter requires to be re-examined, and the question as to whether the amounts received by the assessee (the Society) qualify for exemption, under Section 2 (15) or Section 11 needs to be gone into afresh.”

With this direction, the Court has ordered that the “AO shall examine the documents and relevant papers and render fresh findings on the issue whether respondent (the Society) is a charitable trust, entitled to exemption of its income. The AO shall complete the hearing and pass orders within four months.”

This Order of the Supreme Court has in reality quashed the Orders of the Appellate Commissioner, the Delhi Bench ‘A’ of Income Tax Appellate Tribunal and the Delhi High Court that had accepted the Society as a Charitable organisation and is in deep discussion in the circle of Income Tax Authorities.

For fellows, who have forged Gopabandhu’s will and have been using the forged will to keep the most earning organ of Orissa, i.e. The Samaja created with the financial support of the people of Orissa and managed by its then editor Gopabandhu Das, knowing pretty well that using a forged document is a severe crime, can go to any extent to canvass for a “finding” of the concerned AO, in their favour. Therefore, Paramita’s active participation in the stage of this Society appears unethical.

Investigation needs be made to find out if there is any unholy nexus between the Society and a section of top IT officials.

Dear Chief Minister! Where is the District of Narasingpur?

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has declared to execute his assurance to convert Bargarh to a District within this year. I demand, before making Bargarh a district, he should tell the people of Athgarh, Tigiria, Baramba and Narsingpur as to where they are to find their District Narasingpur created on the 1st January, 1948 with the subjects of those States having forced their Kings to abdicate their respective thrones.

The district was formed under Notification No.24-A on the 1st January 1948 promulgated in the Orissa Gazette (Extraordinary) of the same date at page 15. It declared:

In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (2) of section 7 and sub-section (1) of section 10 of the code of Criminal Procedure, 1898 (V of 1898), as applied to the Orissa States in Notification No.2-A, dated the 1st January 1948, of the Government of Orissa in the Home Department, the Governor of Orissa is pleased to direct that, with effect from the 1st January 1948, the States of Athgarh, Tigiria, Baramba and Narsingpur shall constitute a district to be known as the district of Narasingpur for the purpose of the said Code and the District Magistrate of Cuttack shall be ex-officio the District Magistrate of the said district.

Below is its photo copy-

In this district the States of Athgarh, Tigiria, Baramba and Narasingpur were made each a sub-division, by Notification No. 29-A published in and promulgated through the Gazette mentioned above at page 17.

At no point of time, the said Notifications are terminated.

But, Harekrushna Mahtab, the megalomaniac, who had even opposed creation of Orissa as a separate province in his newspaper and had played the worst possible tricks against Kulabruddha Madhusudan in order to please the non-Oriya lobby, was the first to resign from Netaji Subhas Bose’s cabinet in order to please Gandhiji after the imbroglio between the two over Pattabhi Sitaramayya, despite the fact that he could not have been in the Congress cabinet had Netaji not been gracious enough to nominate him. “Pattabhi’s defeat is my defeat”, had declared Gandhiji after Netajis victory as 2nd term President of the Congress. So, his resignation from the Congress Cabinet, as the Executive was then called, was nothing but an instance of sabotage to Netaji. This had pleased the Gandhi camp so much that, he had become the Congress choice for Prime Minister of Orissa in the interim government from April 23, 1946 to May 12, 1950. It was his responsibility to ensure that the new district of Narasingpur functions as per the notification cited above. But he kept the district defunct for reasons best known to him.

We the people of Athgarh, Tigiria, Baramba and Narasingpur want that, our district be functional before any other district including Bargarh is created.

Murder of Minister: Chief Minister’s murky manners call for judicial enquiry

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is silent till now on the murder of health minister Naba Kishore Das, even though he had rushed, with unusual haste, to the private hospital, where, airlifted from Jharsuguda he was to reach for “urgent treatment”.This silence is mysterious.

How had he seen his minister in the hospital? Was he dead or alive? What treatment he had obtained in the hospital?

On Jan.29 a Police ASI had fired at him point blank at Brajarajnagar in the district of Jharsuguda and the bullet had gushed out in his back after piercing through the heart. Situation was so serious that instead of normal investigation, the Director General of Police had to issue a prompt order to the Crime Branch to investigate into the murder. A retired judge of the Orissa High Court has started superintending the investigation as per order of the Court in response to the CM’s request.

Opposition parties have been demanding for investigation through an agency beyond the boundary of Orissa, as to them, CB being a part of the Police, investigation against the police officer who pumped his bullets into the heart of the minister, may not be impartial.

We do not subscribe to this suspicion.

Investigation into unnatural deaths vests in the police.

There is nothing unusual in the Police asking its Crime Branch to investigate and report. Requisition of a sitting or retired judge to supervise the investigation is also not unusual

But to us, unusual is the Chief Minister’s stand in this case. He had rushed to the hospital with his Hanuman-like loyal secretary much ahead of the ambulance carrying the “critically injured” minister was to reach the hospital. He saw in his own eyes his “critically injured” colleague when he was collected from the ambulance by the hospital staff. The bullet had caught him full in the chest and piercing the heart had gushed out in the back inter alia rupturing the lungs.

Was he alive for so many hours? Was he really alive? Had the CM seen him alive? Medico-legal investigation into whether or not he was dead by the time the CM and his Hanuman saw him in the hospital is what really is essential.

We prefer an investigation into whether or not Naba Kishore Das was dead by the time the CM saw him in the Hospital. If he was dead, why the drama of treatment was enacted? From the medico-legal point of view, if he was dead before being airlifted from Jharsuguda, post-mortem should have been conducted in the hospital there. Under whose orders, the local police did not do it there? If he was not dead by then, he should have been taken to the Medical College at Cuttack or to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhubaneswar. Under whose orders, hw was taken to the private hospital for treament? If he was alive, what treatment he received in the private hospital and exactly when he died? The answer with the post-mortem report of the Capital Hospital along with the eye-witness statement of the Chief Minister must be a must for investigation. The police ASI murdered him, how the police ASI murdered him is not important for the public. If the police ASI murdered him under instigation by some one else, determination of that some one is also not important for the public. Whether or not the Chief Minister was staging a drama through out and whether or not the people were misled for a pretty long time by that drama is what the investigation must bring out.

In order to keep himself aboveboard, the CM should promulgate a term of reference to this extent by converting the judicial supervision of the ongoing investigation to a judicial enquiry.

This being the first killing of a sitting minister in Orissa, the matter is serious.

MafiaRaj in Orissa: Naba’s Shani link needs proper investigation to find out his real killer

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Crime Branch of Orissa Police is entrusted with investigation into the death of Health Minister Naba Kishore Das, the first ever cabinet member of Orissa to be shot at, that too by a police ASI in uniform.

Media in its entirety highlights that the Police ASI who opened fire into the chest of the Minister, has been taking psychiatric medicines for last about eight years.

The Crime Branch (CB) may look into how a man under psychiatric treatment was made to head the Police Outpost at Brajarajnagar, a known place of industry-labor tussle, with departmental gun to use when he feels it necessary. But one may feel it necessary to say that the secrecy behind Mr. Das donating a Gold-vessel worth Rs.1 crore to a temple of Shani on 21 this month needs be unveiled. As we have earlier said, offering gold worth Rs.1 crore to a Shani shrine of Maharastra was not a normal conduct of a minister.

What was the reason of this abnormality must have to be investigated into.

The State is engaged in wiping out Naxal activists, but Mafia Raj has engulfed the State during this regime, as is established in the instant case.