United call to abolish discretionary quota

BHUBANESWAR: Amid the row over misuse of discretionary quota in allotment of government houses here and in Cuttack, CPM on Friday demanded a CBI probe into the matter while political parties, including the BJD, favoured abolition of such a provision.CPM activists staged a protest rally outside the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) alleging that precious houses and land in the Capital are being looted by influential people like ministers, ruling party MLAs, judges, bureaucrats and senior police officers.Alleging that BDA’s guideline of ‘one house to one family’ is violated, the CPM alleged that ministers and their family members are getting undue favours by the Urban Development (UD) ministers. Under discretionary quota, the Urban Development minister is entitled to allot 10 per cent of BDA and 5 per cent of Cuttack Development Authority (CDA) houses.Criticising Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for his alleged inaction on the matter, secretary of the CPM Bhubaneswar regional committee Prabhat Panigrahi demanded publication of a list of those who availed more than one houses or plots under discretionary quota.Panigrahi alleged that not only Law Minister Bikram Arukh there are several other ministers who have acquired huge patches of land here and in Cuttack under the discretionary quota.Meanwhile, the three major political parties, including the ruling BJD, have favoured a proposal for abolition of the discretionary quota provision.Niranjan Patnaik, OPCC president,  supported the idea of scrapping the provision saying it has widened the divide in the society. “Action should be taken against the UD ministers who misused the discretionary quota,” he said.Similarly, the BJP State president Jual Oram too supported the proposal saying the politicians, who misused the provision, should be booked under the provision of the law. The issue of discretionary quota hogged the limelight after release of the property list of ministers by the Chief Minister.Naveen had said the government was seriously examining the provision of the discretionary quota system. Arukh had admitted to have taken two BDA houses under the discretionary quota. The Minister offered to return one of the houses amid demands of his resignation.