By Our Correspondent
BHUBANESWAR/ KENDRAPARA/NEW DELHI: Call it Gainer in Biju Era but Loser in Naveen Regime: Is Leaving BJD Proving Disastrous for BJP National VP Baijayant ‘Jay’ Panda and his family owned IMFA Empire? This is widely debated both in political and corporate circles after the relations between 2 powerful family , read Biju Patnaik and Bansidhar Panda, getting bad to worse day by day with Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik continued to keep very strong stand against any wrong doings by the Panda family in Odisha.
“With 2 top officials including CFO and PoA holder, of Panda family owned OTV, Odisha Infratech Pvt Ltd including Manoranjan Sarangi and Siba Harichandan had already been arrested by Crime Branch of State Police over land scam in Khurda district and BJD’s 2 MPs Dr Amar Patnaik and Dr Sasmit Patra continuing their attack in twitter on Jay Panda and his model turn entrepreneur wife Jagi Panda, things are certainly looking tense for the former Kendrapara MP Panda ,” sources said. Kendrapara MP Anubhav Mohanty and BJD general secretary Pranab Prakash Das alias Baby too taking on Panda family in twitter.
Meanwhile, a day after BJD Rajya Sabha MP Dr Amar Patnaik threatening to drag to Supreme Court, his Upper House, Colleagues, Dr Sasmit Patra on Wednesday continued to the attack on BJP National VP Baijayant ‘Jay’ Panda and his family owned OTV.
Drawing attention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi , Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJD MP Dr Patra argued that BJP National VP Jay Panda family clearly violated OLR Act , which has provisions that non-Dalits can’t buy Dalit-owned land.
Dear @PMOIndia Sir, as per OLR Act, non-Dalits can’t buy Dalit-owned land. Hoodwinking law, businessman Baijayant ‘Jay’ Panda used his Dalit driver as conduit to buy land from Dalits in Odisha and transfer to his company Odisha Infratech Pvt Ltd. @AmitShah,@TCGEHLOT,@PiyushGoyal,” Dr. Sasmit Patra tweeted @sasmitpatra
Earlier on Tuesday, Rajya Sabha MP and National spokesperson, Dr Amar Patnaik had threatened to drag ‘Jay’ Panda’s family if justice were not delivered to some 21 SC landowners, who were dispossessed of their land by the OTV subsidiary, Odisha Infratech illegally and fraudulently. Sources said, 5 of the 21 landowners had met MP Dr Patnaik and sought his help. Dr Patnaik assured as SC families to extend all possible support and if required, he would extend all legal support till matter reached to Supreme Court.
“Five of the twenty one Scheduled Caste landowners who were dispossessed of their land by the@PandaJay ‘s Odisha Infratech illegally & fraudulently met me and requested me to take up their legal case in their fight against the Pandas. I have accepted the case on pro bono@otvnews,” Dr. Amar Patnaik tweeted @Amar4Odisha.
“Assured them everything within my powers for justice & get back their land. Lot of inner satisfaction for me today! Seeking Lord Jagannath’s blessings for strength to fight for the poor & disadvantaged. Won’t charge a single pie, even if it gets dragged upto the Supreme Court !,” the BJD MP added.
It may be noted here that earlier on Sunday after arrest of CFO Manoranjan Sarangi, CB too arrested Power of Attorney Holder of Sarua Land scam issue , Siba Harichandan. After questioning for hours, the EOW arrested Shrichandan, who is the Power of Attorney holder for Odisha Infratech Pvt Ltd.Former Kendrapara MP Jay Panda (35,90,000 shares), Jagi Mangat Panda (1,25,418 shares), Panda Investments (12,000 shares) owned by Baijayant Panda have shares in Odisha Infratech Pvt Ltd.
However, Biju Lovers in Kendrapara and as well as in Bhubaneswar , said Jay Panda’s industrialist father Bansidhar Panda got name and fame because of legendary Biju Patnaik. “Biju babu had trusted Bansidhar Panda and for that IMFA Founder exploited that to wealth, that IMFA Group stands today,” a Biju Lover of Kendrapara, who had worked at the now defunct BTM Jharsuguda, another brain child of Biju Babu, said adding leaving Biju Pariwar seems proving disastrous for Jay and Jagi and IMFA Group. “If Cuttack’s Choudwar developed into like India’s ‘Manchester’ it was Biju Babu’s vision not Bansidhar Panda’s continuing business there,,’ he said. For Kalinga Tubes, Choudwar saw industrial units in 1950s and 60s, he informed.
“The Jindals of today too made their big money from trading in steel tubes from Kalinga Tubes manufactured. Elderly people say the patriarch of the Jindal family late OP Jindal would keep waiting for days on end to lift his quota after paying up in full. So was the demand for Kalinga tubes as a monopoly item those days. In the late 1960s, Bansidhar Panda came up with his ferrosilicon and silicon metal plant in Raygada. Before the ordinary people of India could even know an entity by the name ‘IMFA’ existed, Bansidhar had become a millionaire.
“Using Biju Babu and later Naveen Patnaik till Jay Panda with BJD , late Bansidhar Panda and his family even got IMFA Group power tariff reduced to virtual zero by persuading the authorities to agree to the huge benefit in the name of promoting industrialisation but now his son Jay Panda is at loggerheads with Biju Babu’s most loving son, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik,” added a BJD veteran.
By the mid-1970s, Bijubabu had become the most-adored Odia statesman, particularly after the Emergency period ended in 1977. So, except once in 1990, Bijubabu couldn’t capture Odisha ever again. When he was Chief Minister in the early 1960s, Bansidhar Panda took maximum advantage from him to become an entrepreneur of repute, sources argued.
Much later in the early 1990s, the Panda family took best advantage again by grabbing Rajya Sabha member seats. The Pandas, having benefitted earlier by the Congress leaders, shifted loyalty and joined Bijubabu’s brigade when the legend was back in power. Bijubabu sold his flagship Kalinga Tubes to the IMFA group en bloc, plant machinery and the entire landed property which is a big township by all standards with fabulous houses, bungalows, guesthouses, schools, club facilities, movie theatres, parks and more.
No one knows for what price the senior Panda struck the deal, but given Bijubabu’s whimsical nature, people say it was given away for a song by today’s market value. The Pandas set up a huge chargechrome plant on the land. Naveen Patnaik emerged as boss in the late 1990s after Bijubabu’s death in 1997. The Pandas kept the no-nonsense Naveen very happy by constantly citing ancient family relationship, which was not wrong. Naveen too gave in return for loyalty everything the Pandas needed for self aggrandisement. Their OTV was given unconditional support to flourish.
Baijayant virtually challenged Naveen for his choice of advisor eventually to be axed one day. Baijayant incidentally had been exposed as an MP who served his business concern more than the State. He even diverted rail projects to benefit his company rather than the poor people of Odisha stranded due to lack of rail communication.He joined the BJP he fought all his life and lost to Anubhav Mohanty in Kendrapara despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi campaigned there.
