Bhubaneswar: As the dissent against senior party leader and ex-minister Damodar Rout continues to grow among BJD leaders for his alleged involvement in anti-party activities, Rout today once again lashed out at his political colleagues and brought in allegation of bias against him.
Balikuda-Erasama BJD MLA Prashant Kumar Muduli and Jagatsinghpur district president Bishnu Charan Das on Monday met Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and urged for disciplinary action against Rout and his suspension.
Training guns at Muduli, Rout said, “Despite being elected as the MLA, Muduli is holding the post of Jagatsinghpur district planning committee. The president of the Zilla Parishad should be the chairman of the committee but the former is working under Muduli which is in violation of the Constitutional norms.”
“The State Government provides an aid of Rs 1.14 crore under the head of critical fund annually to the four constituencies of Jagatsinghpur district. Muduli is the chairman there since the last three years but he has not funded even a penny for my constituency (Paradip),” Rout alleged.
Hitting out at Bishnu Das, Rout said, “He was bestowed with the responsibility of distributing aid of Rs 10-crore as social problem fund. Das gave away Rs 4.66 crore to Jagatsinghpur constituency, Rs 1.03 crore to three blocks of Tirtol constituency and Rs 68 lakh to Ersama and Balikuda blocks of which Rs 60.50 lakh was given to Balikuda and only Rs 7.80 lakh sanctioned for Ersama as it is my hometown.”
He further questioned, “Paradip, which is my constituency, has not been given a single penny. So, I want to know who is indulging in anti-party activities, me or them?”
Rout alleged that Muduli and Das bribed the members of each panchayat of Balikuda and Ersama with Rs 5,000 each to bring in complaints against him and the Chief Minister is aware of it.
“I was removed from all the posts of the party. The BJD is being run by four people- one officer and three MLAs- Debasish Samantaray, Arun Sahoo and Bobby (Pranab Prakash) Das,” said Rout, adding that he does not belong to that BJD.
After hundreds of party members from Balikuda and Ersama reached Naveen Niwas demanding removal of Rout from the party, the CM, before leaving for Delhi on a three-day visit, assured that he will look into their grievances. “A number of people had come with complaints against Damodar Rout. I will look into their complaints,” informed party president and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
On the other hands, former MP Baijayant Panda on Tuesday said, “Damodar Rout is a senior leader and the allegations he has brought need to be probed. Earlier such allegations were looked into but these days no action is being taken against any charges. I should not say anything in this matter rather the government should answer.”
Meanwhile, Leader of Opposition Narsingha Mishra said that Rout should raise the cooperative bank loan scam in Assembly.
"Once the cooperative bank loan scam is raised in Assembly, it will be documented & police will be forced to register case," Mishra said.
Congress also raked up allegations of irregularities in Omfed brought by Rout saying instead of Vigilance probe, accused official was given charge of investigation, the so-called 'godfather' of the scams is the CM himself.