Subhas Chandra Pattanayak
Orissa Assembly started its last session for 2010 on November 23, but lost most of the day to ruckus over corruption in land allocation to the unborn dubious venture called Vedanta University in which, the needle of suspicion points directly towards Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. Both the Congress and BJP demanded that Patnaik must resign, as his corrupt conduct has been exposed even in judicial determination over the issue. The Lokpal report apart, the Opposition’s stress was on the judgment of the Orissa High Court in justification of their demand.
The Orissa High Court has nullified the land acquisition for and allocation to this so-called university and has ordered for return of the lands to the originals owners thereof in its landmark judgment of November 16.
The High Court judgment reveals how illegal steps are taken by Naveen Patnaik government to oblige the trader that has resorted to naked falsehood in order to grab the most valuable, rare and sensitive coastal land in Puri.
Loudmouth frontbencher of the CM’s party, Pradip Maharathi as well as the Parliamentary Affairs Minister Raghunath Mohanty were prominent amongst members of their side to criticize the opposition for their demand for the CM’s resignation. When the Congress run government at the centre is involved with corruption in 2G spectrum allocation and in management of the Commonwealth Games and when the BJP Chief Minister in Karnataka is exposed for land scam that he architected in family interest, what moral right the same two parties have for demanding Naveenbabu’s resignation, they asked.
But the wordy acrobatics notwithstanding, they were marked for not saying a word in support of Naveen Patnaik in context of the High Court verdict in matter of illegality resorted to by his government in land acquisition/allocation that Anil Agrawal needs at Puri.