Orissa High Court

Cuttack, April 28: The alleged Bidanasi land scam, involving illegal transfer of large tracts of government land on the southwestern fringe of the city, has come into focus after nearly two years with Orissa High Court seeking a status probe into the issue from the CBI.

The court has also sought an action-taken report from the state government on the issue. The high court had ordered a CBI probe on January 18, 2012, on a PIL on alleged illegal transactions related to more than 300 acres of government land at Bidanasi.

The PIL, filed by advocate Chittaranjan Mohanty, had alleged that the local revenue inspector and amin, in connivance with land mafia, were facilitating possession over government land for a price. The alleged modus operandi involved creation of forged land records while allowing encroachment on government land.

The CBI had submitted a preliminary report in June 2012. The report had since gathered dust and the PIL languished in the high court till it came up for hearing last week.

The division bench of Justice Indrajit Mahanty and Justice S.C. Parija, before which the PIL came up on Friday, adjourned the matter to June 27 for hearing along with update on probe by the CBI and an action-taken report from the state government.

The court expected the CBI to submit its report by June 22.

While issuing the order, the bench indicated that the CBI, in its preliminary report, had observed that the illegal transfer of government lands in favour of private persons was not possible without the connivance of revenue officials.

Earlier, in pursuance of a high court order on October 21, 2011, a team of officers of the Cuttack district administration had conducted an inquiry and detected numerous cases of illegal transfer of government lands in favour of private persons by way of lease. But, the officers had not been able to proceed with further inquiry owing to non-availability of case records related to these land transfers.

The concerned tehsildars were not able to submit the case records required for conducting the enquiry. In an action-taken report submitted in the high court, the Cuttack collector said: “In spite of frantic efforts and repeated letters to them, the concerned tehsildars (Sadar and Athgarh) could not submit the same (case records) for a transparent inquiry”.

The high court had subsequently ordered a probe by the central investigating authority. The collector had deputed five teams constituting of Odisha Administration Service and Odisha Settlement and Consolidation Service officers assisted by technical persons such as revenue inspectors and amins to inquire into the matter.