Oppn corners Naveen on Vedanta varsity deal

Chief Justice V Gopala Gowda and Justice BP Das had ruled that the acquisition of government and Lord Jagannath temple land for the Rs 15,000 crore university was invalid.

2 min readBhubaneswarNov 18, 2010 01:11 AM IST First published on: Nov 18, 2010 at 01:11 AM IST

A day after the Orissa High Court struck down the land acquisition for the proposed Vedanta University,a united Opposition on Wednesday asked Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik why he sat on a Lok Pal order directing him to probe the deal.

On Tuesday,a two-judge bench comprising Chief Justice V Gopala Gowda and Justice BP Das had ruled that the acquisition of government and Lord Jagannath temple land for the Rs 15,000 crore university was invalid as it violated Land Acquisition companies Rules,1963.

In March this year,Lok Pal justice retd P K Patra had ordered Chief Minister Patnaik to appoint a competent authority to investigate the land deal and find if public servants were influenced by any representative of the Anil Agarwal Foundation,which is implementing the project. The Lok Pal had passed the order after a complaint by trade union leader Dwarika Mohan Mishra.

Senior Congress leader Prasad Harichandan said it was incomprehensible as to why the CM did not act. By ignoring the Lok Pals recommendations,the CM has proved that he has something to hide. We will raise the issue in next weeks Assembly session, said Harichandan.

BJP leader Bijoy Mohapatra said the role of Naveen Patnaik in the deal had been established by the Lok Pal probe. He pressurised bureaucrats to do illegalities. Thats why no probe has been ordered, said Mohapatra.