Joint enquiry into Cuttack cyclone relief loot begins

Cuttack: Revenue Divisional Commissioner (RDC) Central Division RDC Arvind Padhee and Cuttack District Magistrate Girish S N today began a joint inquiry into the ‘relief loot’ allegations against some ruling BJD corporators of Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC). Both the officials went to the CMC office and quizzed the CMC commissioner N R Mohapatra and several corporators on the allegations. [caption id=“attachment_1182493” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Reuters[/caption] “We are making a comprehensive enquiry into the allegations, which are serious in nature and on the basis of our findings, actions shall be taken against those found guilty,” the RDC told reporters. Meanwhile, the CMC commissioner has asked all the corporators to return the excess of relief materials they had forcibly taken away from the CMC office on October 12, the day after the devastating cyclone hit the state. “The corporators have been asked to submit the details of the relief materials they had taken, how much of it were distributed along with proof and return back the excess quantity to the civic body within seven days,” Mohapatra said clearly indicating that some corporators had actually taken away the relief materials by bullying the CMC officials. On the other hand, the BJD corporators squarely blamed officials (both district and civic body) for failing to distribute the relief materials properly to the affected people during the cyclone. While authorities declared to provide cooked food for three days through four free kitchens across the city to about 40,000 affected people, not a single morsel was distributed in any of the designated four kitchens ever, the corporators complained. The city Congress party was first to bring this looting incident into light and subsequently lodged a police complaint demanding action against the culprits in accordance to law. PTI