Bhubaneswar: The State government is likely to face an uphill task while cancellation of plot/flat allocations under the discretionary quota (DQ).
Though the State government has served show cause notices to 720 out of total 1907 beneficiaries under the DQ, no action has been taken yet.
Among the beneficiaries under the quota are frontline politicians including Union Minister Jual Oram and some top bureaucrats.
Oram said, “Yes, I had received a plot and notice was served to me and have given my reply. But the State government should make it clear what action will it take against those who have received flat/plot under DQ. There should not be any hotch-potch on the matter.”
The Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) has served show cause notices to only 156 of 406 beneficiaries including Culture minister Ashok Panda, BJD MLA Padmanav Behera and former minister Bimbadhar Kuanr.
Behera said, “The BDA has not seen what it has sent. There was a DQ plot under the name of my wife and the development authority had approved that. Now how they can question it?”
Meanwhile, Ashok Panda, Culture Minister, said, “There were no legal issues while taking the second plot under the DQ during that time as land affidavit system was not in place. Therefore, there is no illegality.”
On the other hand, Dhaneswar Mohanty, a lawyer, “If anyone knocks the doors of a court and challenges the State government notification regarding cancellation, he/she can get a stay.”
Notably, in December 2014, the State government decided to cancel all the multiple DQ allotments of plots/flats since 1995 while accepting the Taradatt Task force report.