(Top) Pravat Biswal and Debasish Samantray

Cuttack, Oct. 29: Two BJD leaders today blamed former civic body commissioner Nihar Ranjan Mohapatra and other officials for the alleged bungling of relief materials in the city.

“There has neither been any loot nor misappropriation of relief materials,” said Cuttack-Choudwar MLA Pravat Ranjan Biswal.

Barabati-Cuttack MLA Debasish Samantray echoed the same in a bid to defend the party councillors.

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik has ordered a vigilance inquiry after Opposition party leaders made a hue and cry over the alleged misappropriation of relief materials by BJD councillors during Phailin.

“We had no role in the incident. Officials of the Cuttack Municipal Corporation had not followed the decision to operate free kitchens, which subsequently led to the mismanagement,” said Samantray.

Demanding action against Mohapatra and other officials, Biswal also criticised the vigilance raids on the councillors’ houses. “Instead of initiating action against the officials who had issued the relief materials, the raids on the councillors’ houses are not justified,” he said.

The vigilance teams had raided residence of 29 councillors, including 22 belonging to the BJD.

The BJD MLA said that at an emergency meeting on October 12 prior to the cyclone, it was decided that four free kitchens would be opened to provide cooked food to nearly 24,000 persons, who had been evacuated. But, the officials made no arrangement to procure the required utensils, cooks and firewood to prepare the food.

The MLA said that next day, the then commissioner Nihar Ranjan Mohapatra had asked a few councillors to collect the relief materials, including rice, dal, oil and potatoes, and distribute them at their respective wards.

The district administration had supplied 191.80 quintals of rice, while the corporation had procured other items, including edible oil, dal and potatoes, from the market. The councillors had received the materials by signing documents.

Biswal said that on October 17, Mohapatra had issued a notice to the councillors to return the items or pay money in lieu of the stock issued to them.

The state government ordered the vigilance probe on October 21. Mohapatra was transferred, while deputy commissioner J.N. Kujur got suspended and the BJD’s Cuttack unit president and councillor Madhusudan Sahu was expelled from the party the same day.