Expressing strong resentment, local people have alleged that Jharsuguda is now being solely ruled by Naba Das. Whopping 8 acres of land at Sodamala have been illegally leased to the Mahanadi West Management Services, which is owned by Bishal Das. They had demanded a high level probe into the matter and stringent action against all the culprits.
Notably, villagers had in September 2019 urged the district Collector not to hand over the forestland at Sodamal to any firm as there were many costly trees on the land. But, the concerned Revenue Inspector reported that there was no big tree and there were only bushes on the said patches of land.
After all these facts were brought to the fore by the Argus News, BJP Yuva Morcha activists along with locals led by BJP State secretary Tankadhar Tripathy staged a protest rally from Kissan Chhack to the district Collectorate here on Monday.
“Due to handover of land to a private firm, many valuable big trees will be felled. Our livelihood source will be affected and we will suffer in many ways,” said Pramod Parua, a villager of Sodamal.
Another villager, Naresh Nayak, demanded stringent action against the concerned RI for submitting false data to the administration.
Former MLA Radharani Panda demanded that the matter be investigated by the Crime Branch and stringent action be taken against all erring officers.
