Cuttack, April 25: The Odisha government has started the process of telecasting awareness programme for investors on collection of unauthorised public deposits on Doordarshan.
"Four scripts have already been finalised. Necessary contract for executing the agreement for production and telecasting has been sent to the director, Doordarshan Kendra (Bhubaneswar)," the Odisha government has said in an affidavit submitted before the Justice Madan Mohan Das Commission.
"A sum of Rs 5,09,225 has been released to Doordarshan for the purpose," home department additional secretary Susanta Mohapatra said in the affidavit submitted on Saturday.
The commission, which is probing into the Ponzi scam, was hearing a petition seeking intervention against unchecked unauthorised collection of public money in Odisha. Acting on the petition filed by high court lawyer Pravat Ranjan Dash, the commission had "as an interim measure" directed the Odisha government to launch an intensive public awareness campaign to prevent unauthorised collection of deposits in the state. The Odisha government was also asked to file an action taken report.
In his affidavit, Mohapatra said Rs 1 lakh had been sanctioned to each of the 30 districts and "all collectors and district magistrates have been requested to conduct awareness programmes in their districts to safeguard the interest of investors".
The government expected the district authorities "to conduct programmes, including rallies, essay and debate competitions, financial literacy and investors' awareness at block and local body-level colleges".
"The panchayat department has been requested to issue suitable instructions to the district/block/panchayat level functionaries to arrange for distribution and display the awareness posters on unauthorised collection of money at prominent locations in each panchayat office," the affidavit said.
Mohapatra, in his affidavit, further claimed that the Odisha government had paid "Rs 24,92,906 to the station director, Prasar Bharati Commercial Broadcasting Service (All India Radio), Cuttack, for broadcasting on investors awareness theme for public awareness".
All India Radio started broadcasting it from September 29, 2015 and continued till March 3, 2016.
"The broadcast was also made by AIR Sambalpur, Balangir and Bhawanipatna in the Sambalpuri dialect, AIR Baripada and Keonjhar in Shantali dialect, AIR Rourkela in Shadri dialect and AIR Jeypore in Desia, Kui and Soura dialects," Mohapatra said in the affidavit.
Taking note of the affidavit, the commission has posted the petition to June 21 for further hearing, along with an update on the steps taken for public awareness.
The commission has accordingly asked the home department to file a further affidavit, official sources said.
The petitioner had earlier alleged "no steps have been taken by the state till date for creating awareness among the general public with regard to various persons and companies who are still continuing to illegally collect deposits from general public in the state".
