Orissa Matters

Action against Soumya by Congress for cultivating support for Congress!

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

A few days ago, two young girls, while taking an opinion poll as they said, wanted to know from me whether or not I support the steps Orissa State Unit of Congress has initiated against Sri Soumya Ranjan Patnaik (SRP) for having started a mass awareness campaign in favor of the party. I asked them to go to any member of that party, as I am not a Congress member to support or oppose any of its organizational behavior.

As I know SRP, he is a very sound campaigner for any cause of public importance. Though I never accept the wrong transformation of the English spelling of Orissa to Odisha, it is only he, who had pioneered the campaign for this transformation that shepherded shortsighted politicians of all the parties into his idea, which ultimately led to amendment of the constitution of India in this respect. But, this transformation, how much we may condemn it, is the most glaring instance of his ability to initiate and lead a campaign successfully. He has made blood donation a mass movement in Orissa. His social outfit Ama Odisha is another instance of his organizational excellence. In Orissa’s social and literary life, Ama Odisha has already occupied a monumental position that no other organization in similar category has so far achieved. No other newspaper has reached the circulation and stature in Orissa than what the daily Sambada has achieved under his stewardship in less than three decades. He is the only one amongst Orissa’s politicians whose presence in every type of mass media is as conspicuous as fabulous is the volume of his intellectual activities. He is the only one amongst Orissa’s politicians after Dr. Harekrushna Mahtab, who attracts to his orbit eminent men of letters of Orissa for interactional purpose. He is the only politicians of Orissa, whose fans in every nook and corner of the State are visible; and, everybody knows, had he not joined politics, he would have emerged as the most commanding personification of vox populi, no politician could have dared to vie with. The most remarkable feature of SRP is that all the marks he has made as enumerated above are because of his personal devotion to the cause he takes up, and not because of any patronage of any political party, he, in course of his activism, has ever joined.

Such a man, who could have been a tremendous asset to the Congress party against the misruling, yet incumbent, Naveen Patnaik, has been subjected to disciplinary proceedings by the very same Congress party when the time of general elections is only a few months away.

And, for what this disciplinary action? For his use of his personal channels to cultivate support for the Congress! What next!

Personally, I am not surprised.

Ever since the great server of POSCO interest has grabbed the chiefministry of Orissa, the Congress high command has always planted persons to sabotage electoral prospects of the Congress in Orissa, so that Naveen continues to rule to help the juggernaut of American interest run sans any obstacle.

Justice Arijit Pasayat should speak out

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Justice Arijit Pasayat is a former Judge of the Supreme Court of India. He is a trustee of Servants of the People Society (SoPS). Under Art.32 of its Constitution, a trustee is appointed “for the better management of the assets” of SoPS and shall remain a trustee till death. The Samaja of Orissa is being used as an asset of SoPS. Therefore, Justice Pasayat is also responsible for its “better management”.

In a previous posting in these pages we have exposed how huge sums of money are being misappropriated through dubious advertisement bills by a blue-eyed boy of the SoPS, who acts as ad manager of the Samaja. He has been rewarded with an additional post of Joint General Manager.

Recently when the Additional District Magistrate of Cuttack was required by the Registrar of Newspapers for India (RNI) to enquire into legitimacy of ownership of the Samaja as it was alleged by ‘Save the Samaja Forum’ (SSF) that SoPS has illegally occupied the newspaper by using a fake WILL projected as Gopabandhu’s, a retired IAS officer S.C.Mantry parading himself as General Manager of Samaja had used Justice Pasayat’s name as a trustee in order to dazzle the officer to dance to his tune. Thus Justice Pasayat’s name and involvement with the Samaja as a trustee of SoPS is being used to influence government officers in Orissa. We wish, Justice Pasayat, being a great name in Indian Judiciary, should ascertain as to whether it was necessary to use his name in course of the ADM’s investigation into legitimacy of SoPS ownership over the Samaja.

However, he being a man of Orissa, and a trustee of SoPS whose duty it is to manage the Samaja in a “better” manner by virtue of being a trustee, and whose name is being used to derail official investigations into felony of forgery pointed out by SSF, we expect that the rampant unfair labor practices going on in the establishment of that paper, should be reacted to by him. Fro last several months, in the latest phase, the Samaja is burning under the heat of internecine battles between rival groups of members of SoPS.

It cannot be believed that Justice Pasayat has not known anything of this ongoing shenanigans in the Samaja establishment.

We want him to speak out when the most dedicated employees of the Samaja are being thrown into enforced idleness, denial of entry into workplace, false police cases, suspension, stoppage of wages, de facto dismissals, domesticated domestic enquiries, and all sorts of colorable exercise of managerial power including dismissal, over and above the nasty practice of denying labor welfare measures like provident fund, employees state insurance, house rent allowance and retirement benefits like gratuity and pension etc to dozens of employees by treating them as casual workers despite their regular discharge of duties for decades non-stop.

We want him to speak out if he is sure that the SoPS has taken over the Samaja on the basis of a genuine WILL of Pandit Gopabandhu Das, a co-founder of the paper. We have stumbled upon records that shows that the WILL the SoPS is claiming to be the basis on which it has occupied the Samaja is a forged WILL. As a trustee, we want Justice Pasayat to verify that WILL and say the public, if he finds the same to be genuine, that the WILL is genuine.

When he had headed a Committee in 2011 to enquire into various financial irregularities including misappropriation of the funds of the Samaja and various acts of misconduct and moral turpitude marked in top functionaries of the Samaja establishment and life members of SoPS, in his report he had mentioned that the “Samaja unlike other newspapers is not the property of any individual or group of persons”. And, we believe, by saying so, he meant Servants of the People Society to the that group of persons.

We want the forgery in matter of Gopabandhu’s WILL be brought to records and therefore, we want Justice Pasayat to speak out.

Rape is no Juvenile Crime

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Brother of the victim of the 16.12.2012 Delhi gang-rape could not have slapped the members of the Juvenile Justice Board because of his inability to reach them. So, the slap he gave to the criminal who got away with a mere three years stay in a correctional home, in the court room itself immediately after delivery of the judgment on August 31, could be held as a symbolic slap on the face of JJB that made a mockery of justice under mindless submission to how the police has framed the case.

Rape is not a juvenile crime. The brutality of rape to which the victim succumbed was not juvenile. It was a mature and major crime and hence it was wrong on part of the police to project it as a juvenile offense.

The crime being major, the criminal should not have been considered a minor. The JJB should have refused to admit the case for adjudication on this ground and should have referred it to a regular court of criminal justice. But lifeless words of law did not allow the judicial wisdom to feel which crime is juvenile, which is not. Resultantly, a judgment is delivered that no sane Indian can cherish.

The parents of the victim may go against the judgment of JJB to higher forum of law. If they go, that may not be gainful; because it cannot be said that the JJB has erred in its judgment. It has held the criminal guilty of all the charges leveled against him and given him the highest quantum of punishment the juvenile law provides for.

So, it is a fit case for the Supreme Court of India to step in and define whether or not murderous rape is a crime of mature potency. And, to redraft the criminal that escaped yesterday appropriate punishment under the smokescreen of juvenility with a punishment of the most minor nature, on such determination. This is essential to save our female population from criminals whose crimes are more menacing in voluminousness than their age.

SoPS has made Samaja a hub of misappropriation: An instance

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Lala Lajpat Rai’s New Delhi based Servants of the People Society (SoPS) having seized the Samaja newspaper by using a forged WILL of one of its founders Pandit Gopabandhu Das, has unleashed a reign of loot of the money that belongs to the people of Orissa, a glimpse of which forms the crux of this presentation.

It has an advertisement manager in the newspaper ‘Samaja” whose name is Priyabrata Mohanty. He is so close to the boss of SoPS that he occupies the General Manager chair, as and when possible, to create panic amongst the employees of Samaja by posing as its employer. Some of his such actions are questioned in the Labor Law forum.

We would come to that on a different day. But now, how this man is involved with money swindling by misusing his ad manager position would be focused upon, as an instance of corrupt practices going on in Samaja newspaper.

We have shown earlier in these pages that the miscreants that have seized the paper have been enjoying their clout with Orissa’s Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. This is giving them a congenial environment to loot the Samaja.

Nexus with the CM
helps them carry out corruption

Because the officers in the fields and various institutional heads know of the nexus of these swindlers with the Chief Minister, they do not dare to say ‘no’ to whatever these fellows ask them to do.

Mark the above picture. It is the photocopy of a cheque that was issued by the DRDA office, Bhadrak, in favor of the Samaja, Balasore, on 23.3.2011 towards payment against an advertisement bill. After a complete year, the said cheque was cancelled by the Project Director – by then a new incumbent as discernible in the body of the cancelled cheque – and a new cheque bearing No. 060616 was issued as per order dated 19.4.2012, relevant portion of which is given here.The order reads: “The ch. No – 026834 for Rs.21,384/- in favour of Samaja, Balasore may be cancelled and a fresh cheque – 060616 for Rs. 21,384 may be issued in favour (of) Sri Pramod Ray, District Correspondent, Samaj”, And the money was thus paid to Pramod Ray vide Voucher No.11, dated 19.4.2012.

Replacing the cheque originally given in favor of the Samaja by canceling the same on production by a reporter of the paper after lapse a complete financial year with another cheque given to the said reporter by his name by the Project Director of the District is blatantly illegal. The Project Director is a senior officer of the State and by virtue of his qualification and long experience as an administrative officer, he knows that such a step was not legal. Yet he did it on the same day the reporter wanted such a favor, because he knew of the nexus of the swindlers’ network with the Chief Minister of the State. The money that should have gone to the Samaja accounts, went to the private account of its reporter Pramod Ray.

Once this trick clicked, the Ad Manager Priyabrata Mohanty combined with Ray to divert Samaja ad dues to his personal accounts by generating advices to the advertisers to pay against the bills through Bank Drafts favoring Ray only. The picture on the margin vouches for this subterfuge.

And the money swindled through this arrangement is monstrous.

An instance

Advertisement Bill No. SCA/12-2013/5901 dated 06/07/12 is just an instance.

It was issued by Mohanty against an all edition BW Ad of Bhadrak Institute of Engineering and Technology, Barapada, Bhadrak that consumed 96 sq.cm of the paper on July 6, 2012. The bill amount was Rs.86,400.00 with a special discount of Rs. 3000.00, thus totaling Rs. 83, 400.00. The institute was asked by Mohanty to pay for the bill by issuing the bank draft in favor of Ray only. When the bill was legally required to be paid to the Samaja accounts, why the Ad manager diverted it to the personal account of Ray? We searched for the modus operandi behind this arrangement, and we were shocked to see that the sole purpose of this arrangement was misappropriation of at least Rs. 43,560.00 out of this bill. The legitimate bill, at the rate of Rs.415/- per sq.cm as per the tariff rate of 2012-13, should have been Rs.39,840.00; not 86,400.00 or Rs. 83,400.00 after special discount. If anything, therefore, it was a misappropriation of Rs. 43,560.00, which could not have materialized had payment cheque been issued in favor of the Samaja. Obviously Mohanty and Roy have shared the loot. The man of Mohanty, who prepared the bill might have also been tipped a bit to keep the swindling secret.

Another instance

Another instance shows that the corrupt practice is going on continuously.

We site Bill No. SCA/13-2014/2465 dated 03.06.2013.

The same man that had prepared the above cited bill dated July 6, 2012, has prepared this Bill too and Mohanty as Ad Manager has issued it.

It amounts to Rs.3,25,780.00 and claims Rs.2, 99, 780.00 after special discount of Rs.26,000.00 charging the same Institute – Bhadrak Institute of Engineering and Technology, for a display in color consuming 360 sq.cm. on June 3, 2013.

As per the paper’s Tariff rate for 2013-14, the legitimate bill amount should have been Rs.1,78,200.00 only, not Rs.3,25,780.00. So, here also, in terms of the net claim after discount, there is a clear possibility of misappropriation of Rs. 1,21,580.00 by the Mohanty Ray combine.

Yet another instance

The illicit nexus with the Chief Minister well-known to government servants, the Special Officer cum Sub-Collector, Bhadrak was also asked by Mohanty to pay against Bill No. SCA/13-2014/2469 of 23/05/13 by A/C Payee Bank draft favoring Ray. The said Sub-Collector could not dare to question as to why the payment should be made to Ray in stead of the Samaja, when it was a bill against advertisement published in that paper.

More harmful than this

We shudder when we feel that there is a process in practice in the Samaja which is more harmful than this syndrome of misappropriation. And, that is: False Advertisement Bills.

The highly inflated bills must be fake bills with the numbers and dates of the genuine bills against which payments must be being taken to Samaja records to hoodwink the audit as and when conducted or normal eyes of the auxiliary staff in the ad wing or vigilant eyes of the employees association. It prods us to apprehend that Priyabrata Mohanty within full knowledge of the fellows of SoPS that have seized the Samaja, has been running a parallel economy in the organization to exploit the impact of the paper for his personal monetary benefit, as his controlling bosses – members of SoPS – who themselves are involved with rabid misappropriation of Samaja funds – are also his patrons and protectors.

People of Orissa, out of their everlasting love for Utkalmani Pandit Gopabandhu Das have contributed their might to evolution of the Samaja to such a stature that it stands synonym to newspapers as a whole. The fellows who have been swindling money in its name, have infested it with right-reactionary conservatism and nefarious corruptions.

It is natural, therefore, for the right thinking people of Orissa to start social audit on its activities. We are glad that our step is pioneering in this regard.

New threat to Titilagarh from Thermal plant

CGNet Swara moderator S. Chowdhury has transmitted the version of Balakrishna Sandh of Titilagarh in a mail. It informs that the private Sahara company is trying to acquire lands on the bank of River Tel for a Thermal Power Plant it wants to commission soon. Titilagarh is marked for intolerable high temperature. Last year the mercury had exceeded 50 and if the Thermal Plant is allowed, the temperature would rise further.

It is intriguing that the Government officials are framing up false cases against whosoever refuses to give his/her land to the Company. Despite people’s case pending in the High Court of Orissa, Naveen Patnaik’s government is siding with Sahara to acquire the huge stretch of land by police force and nefarious tricks to the total detriment of the self-employed farming community’s interest.

He has send us the recorded version of Sri Sandh.