Lakhs of affidavits that are yet to be part of the manual inventory Picture by Badrika Nath Das

Cuttack, Sept. 23: The state government is trying to facilitate creation of a database of more than 7.5 lakh affidavits received by the Justice R.K. Patra Commission probing into alleged fraudulent activities of deposit collection companies in the state.

“The government is keen on facilitating construction of the database of the affidavits with the assistance of state information and technology department’s Odisha Computer Application Centre (OCAC) to expedite the commission’s probe process,” commission’s secretary Devraj Rout told The Telegraph.

“Chief secretary Gokul Chandra Pati has already held a meeting with the commission and a workstation having a separate server with 32 computers and other accessories has been targeted to be ready for the purpose by the end of December,” Rout said.

The panel wants to create a database containing details such as names of companies, names of depositors with address, amount deposited, amount received back by the depositor, balance amount due to be received and so on from the data available from the affidavits it had received.

Rout said, state information and technology department’s OCAC had submitted an estimate of Rs 1.29 crore for construction of the database.

By October 31, 2013, the commission received 7.5 lakh envelopes. So far 4.2 lakh envelops, many of them containing more than one affidavit have been opened. But, sources said the commission has been able to register 3,000 of the affidavits in the manual process so far.

The affidavits were received in response to a public notice issued by the commission on August 4, 2013, seeking information from persons having any knowledge about “unauthorised collection of public deposits in the state”.

Depositors filed most of the affidavits, in allegedly unauthorised deposit collection companies, apparently with the hope that the commission will help them getting back their money.

“Creation of the database will speed up the inventory of the affidavits along with details and the inquiry process as well,” justice R.K. Patra told The Telegraph.

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik had appointed the judicial commission headed by the retired high court judge on July 9 last year after receiving flak from the Opposition parties for the spate of cheating cases in the state involving deposit collection companies.

It is expected “to identify the individuals and entities that have indulged in unauthorised collection of public deposits in the state” and “to probe and bring out involvement of influential persons, bureaucrats and other sections of the society, if any, in protecting or promoting such illegal activities”.