RNM felicitates Ministers and Govt Officials for restoring 506 acres of land from JSCo
Badal Tah,Odishabarta
Rayagada, January 28: Rayagada Nagarika Mancha(RNM), a District level Civic Body professing all round development of Rayagada district, has lauded the efforts of Revenue Minister Pramila Mallick, ST-SC-OBC-Minorities & Law Minister Jagannath Saraka, Rayagada MLA Makaranda Muduli, Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana Advisor Sudhir Das, Collector Swadha Dev Singh, ADM Somanath Pradhan, Sub-Collector Bhimsen Sabara & Tehsildar Tapas Rout for being primarily instrumental in restoring 506 acres of ceiling surplus land out of 787 acres from a dysfunctional sugar company named Jeypore Sugar Company(JSCo) in Rayagada.
In spite of claim by the district administration to return excess land under OLR Act, JSCo manipulated the system to keep 787 acres of land under its control by illegal means and false affidavits. The then protectors of the system were having a malafide nexus with JSCo in plundering the resources from Rayagada and investing the same elsewhere in AP. When there was an order by the apex court to the local revenue officer to decide the case, the local admn delayed the process by giving chance to JSCO to further move to apex court for a review petition. Though JSCo was not continuing any industrial activities since long, it was still renewing its license from local factory and boiler’s office, pollution board office, sales tax/excise tax office, etc. It was in tandem with some corrupt officers in the departments. A few unwarranted activities like sharecropping, reaping of eucalyptus plantation without the permission from proper quarters was done by JSCo. The state counsel appointed by the Govt at the apex court was not dealing the case properly. JSCo was an impediment in the development of the district.
At this juncture the then Sub-Collector Sri Muralidhar Swain, a pro-people govt officer, had an interaction with some of the netizens of Rayagada namely Bidulata Huika, Ajay Rath, Kedar Panda, Jayaram Jena, Jogesh Das, Badal Tah, Venkat Rao Senapati, Jagdish Boxipatra and requested them to intervene in the apex court as a third party. Then with help of several emancipated citizens of Rayagada district a press meet in Bhubaneswar in this regard was held apart from meeting concerned ministers, MLAs, heads of political parties and a few bureaucrats. Unfortunately, Advocate Kedar Panda & Sarvodayee Gandhian, in the mean time, have passed away. Contribution of Murali Swain and the then Tehsildar, who passed the historic order to return back 506 acres of ceiling surplus land, was reckoned with by RNM. The members also applauded the efforts taken by Minister Saraka and BSKY Advisor Das in getting back this land.
Collector Swadha Dev Singh acknowledged the pressure tactics of citizens for this great restoration and agreed that fortunately she was lucky to implement the order of the Apex Court. SP Vivekananda Sharma vividly spoke on the occasion regarding the potential uses of the land for balanced & integrated development of the district.
Apart from the interveners, RNM members namely Ranjan Rath, Dr Niranjan Boxipatra,Dr K Salvaraju, Dr D K Mohanty, Goparanjan Boxipatra, Rasmi Ranjan Dora, Deepak Prusty, Rabindra Patakhandal, Narin Kumundan, Labanya Mohan Patnaik, Sunil Chandra Panda, Satya Padhi, Debasish Khadanga, SDC Chairperson-Anusuya Majhi, ZP Chairperson-Saraswati Majhi, Rayagada Municipality Vice-Chairperson Subha Panda, Advocate Biraja Patra, Educationist Gobinda Prasad Rath under the leadership of Sr Advocate and Vice-President of RNM Braja Sundar Nayak submitted a memorandum to Revenue Minister Pramila Mallick regarding the potential use of the land restored from JSCo. Minister Mallick appreciated the efforts of Rayagada Nagarika Mancha & assured the august gathering to take the demand forward to Chief Minister Naveen Pattanaik. She praised the genuine demand of RNM like establishment of a medical college, an airport, a working womens’ hostel, a swadhar gruha, a KVK, a model residential english medium school, an outdoor stadium, a centre for disabled(DDRC), a new high school and a college in the town, a new bus stand, a park for children and senior citizens, a herbal garden, etc., which have earlier been assured by our state.
