The CPI (M) Odisha state committee staged a demonstration at Bhubaneswar’s PMG Square on August 19 in protest against rampant corruption in the state under the Naveen Patnaik-led BJD government. The demonstration was presided over by Bhubaneswar district committee secretary Suresh Panigrahy. Addressing the gathering, party state secretary Janardan Pati said corruption in the state’s mining sector has been rampant for the past 60 years. Parties like Congress, BJP and BJD who have ruled the state in different times are involved in corrupt practices. Corruption in the present Naveen Patnaik’s 14-year rule has surpassed all previous records. The much-publicised clean image of Naveen Patnaik has been nakedly exposed by reports of the Shah Commission and the CAG. The Shah Commission, in its first report, revealed that Odisha has lost more than Rs 60,000 crore due to irregularities and illegal mining and recommended for inquiry by CBI. It was turnd down by the Naveen Patnaik government with the aurgument that the state vigilance department was capable enough to inquire into the matter. The same arguement was also given in case of the chit fund fraud involving about Rs 30,000 crore. Instead of accepting a CBI enquiry, the state crime branch was entrusted upon the investigation. But the crime branch could not touch any political leader particularly of the ruling BJD in the chit fund scam. Now after the intervention of the Supreme Court, CBI had taken up the investigation and within a fortnight raids were conducted on the houses of BJD leaders and some BJP and Congress functionaries. CBI has so far seized Rs 26 Lakh in cash from the house of sitting BJD MP Ramchandra Hansda and many important documents from the houses of the former Chief Whip and MLA Prabhat Tripathy. A galaxy of BJD ministers and leaders are involved in the chit fund scam which will be unearthed soon if the enquiry is carried out properly, Pati said. In the last session of Odisha Assembly, the CAG report was placed, in which irregularities in 37 departments have been pointed out. The entire resource of the state like land, water, forests and minerals are being handed over to Corporates. Irregular allotment of land without adherence to forests and environmental norms has become a common phenomenon in Odisha. Odisha’s Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (IDCO), an intermediary organisation to provide land to industrial units, has allotted 29697.482 acres of private land and 16963.412 acres of government land to different companies on lease basis. Many of these companies have not put up their units and compensation has not been disbursed to the private landowners. Likewise 304 industrial/ commercial organisations, out of a total 427, are drawing water from rivers and reservoirs of the state without executing any agreement. The recent scam involving allotment of houses and plots is really shocking. The CAG report has once again brought to light the nexus among bureaucrats, ruling party leaders, business houses and land mafias to grab precious government land in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack. The discretionary quota for land allotment has been grossly misused and plots were distributed adopting methods of nepotism and favouritism. Under Naveen Patnaik’s rule, agriculture land is being denied to the landless people and forest land is being denied to Adivasis under the Forest Rights Act. The distribution of homestead land is only a slogan to garner votes, in realty the picture is just the opposite. The meeting was also addressed by party’s state secretariat members Sivaji Patnaik, Ali Kishor Patnaik, Santosh Dash, Jaganath Mishra, Bishnu Monahty and Sishir Hui. A memorandum highlighting these scams and corruption cases and demanding CBI inquiry was handed over to the Governor. To press the government to order a CBI inquiry into the cases, the state committee has called for movements and campaign in district, block and tehsil levels across the state from September 5 to 15.