Cuttack, May 27: Orissa High Court’s vacation bench has set May 30 as deadline for the state government to clarify its stand on the PIL seeking the quashing of the port policy adopted by it and declaring all actions taken on the basis of it as illegal.

The vacation bench constituting Justice I. Mohanty and Justice S.K. Mishra set the deadline while fixing May 30 for hearing the PIL after the state government sought more time for it yesterday. On May 20, the court had asked the government on the PIL to file a reply by May 25.

The PIL has challenged the port policy issued by the state commerce and transport department as it facilitated private participation in development of ports either through international competitive bidding (ICB) or MoU.

The petition claimed that the “MoU route” was in contravention to the national policy as it made competitive bidding mandatory for port development through a private public participation (PPP) mode.

Transparency International India (TII) board member Biswajit Mohanty had, in his petition, alleged: “Orissa government has chosen to resort to international bidding process in so far as Gopalpur port is concerned whereas for no legitimate reasons or cause the allotment of Subarnarekha mouth port, Astaranga port and Chudamani port have been through direct negotiation without inviting open bids/tenders by resorting to what it describes as through MoU route.”

The PIL has sought declaration of all actions in pursuance of the policy as “illegal” and order restraining the government from proceeding further on the basis of the policy. The state government had announced plans for development of eight more minor ports. According to the petition, the port policy document issued in 2004 had stipulated the establishment of a maritime board as the statutory instrument to implement the policy. The maritime board was proposed to be established through a state legislation. It was to act as a single-window agency for development of ports and inland waterways by being vested with the authority and powers to plan, direct and implement the maritime development in the state with private sector participation. But it is yet to come into existence.

“The Orissa government is exercising unbridled power in an arbitrary and discriminatory manner,” the petition alleged. The petitioner had earlier, in a letter to Naveen Patnaik, alleged that allotment of minor ports for development by private parties through direct negotiation lacked transparency and pushed for a CBI probe.

The outcome of the PIL assumes significance as AICC general secretary Jagdish Tytler had alleged a major scam in signing of agreement by the Orissa government with private developers for development of minor ports without going for an open bidding process. Tytler had alleged that the scam was bigger than the 2G spectrum one.