Bhubaneswar, June 25: Argus News, Odisha’s leading news channel on Tuesday exposed an imposing housing structure built illegally in the premises of a government quarters allotted to Biju Janata Dal’s (BJD) powerful leader Pranab Prakash Das.
The housing structure, among others, allegedly included an underground chamber, a swimming pool, an artificial snowfall, a rock-garden, a luxurious bed-room with imported furniture and an imperial wooden cottage.
After the television channels aired the images of the illegal structure, Das’ men started dismantling it by engaging construction workers, fearing actions by the new BJP government. Soon after the news spread, officials of the general administration department and state police visited the spot and made an inquiry.
The officials told the media persons that they would check with the department records if due permission was taken by Das for the construction of the house and other structures in the premises of the allotted government quarters.
Pranab Prakash Das, who holds the post of organising secretary of BJD, was the second man in command in the party after Naveen Patnaik for quite some time before he lost the position to V Karthikeyan Pandian.
Pandian, a Tamil Nadu-born bureaucrat-turned politician, is considered in political circles here as the “blue-eyed” boy of Naveen. His alleged “over-indulgence” in the BJD affairs and “interference” in the Naveen Patnaik government led to the downfall of the party.
The BJP central leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah, had during the poll campaign dubbed Pandian’s “excessive control” over the Odisha administration as subjugation of “Odia Ashmita” (pride).
Pandian and Pranab Prakash Das are missing in action after the BJD suffered humiliating drubbing in the assembly and Lok Sabha polls. Responding to the allegations against him, Pranab Prakash said he had constructed a housing structure to listen to the grievances of party workers.
“As I was the organisational secretary of the party, many of our party leaders and workers would come to meet me. So, to accommodate them, a temporary extension was built in the official residence (which is now being removed),” said Pranab.
Strange things are happening in Odisha after BJD lost power to the BJP in the recently held assembly elections. Some of the top senior officials of the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO), who allegedly formed a coterie that literally governed the state “bypassing” the elected people’s representatives, including ministers, — have either resigned from their positions or sought to leave on different pretexts. As a result, the chief minister Mohan Charan Majhi has not yet been able to move in the CMO.
