Bhubaneswar: Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Narasingha Mishra on Tuesday staged a protest in the middle of the House during Zero Hour discussion demanding Vigilance probe on the land acquisition deal for the Vedanta University project at Puri. He also demanded a ruling from the Speaker Pramila Mallick on the issue. During the Zero Hour discussion on the second day of the budget session, Mishra read out all the verdicts on the Vedanta issue—from Lokpal to the High Court of Orissa and the Supreme Court. He alleged the Odisha government has provided “undue” and “unfair” advantage to Vedanta. Observing that Vedanta Group demanded only 3,000 acres of land for its project in Odisha, the state government wanted to provide 15,000 acres of land. He demanded a ruling from the Speaker which would pave the way for a vigilance probe and subsequent action against responsible officials. He went on to allege that Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and his Cabinet Ministers are involved in this multi-crore scam. Mishra demanded a ruling from Speaker Pramila Mallik in this connection. But when the Speaker said she would examine the case and then give her opinion on it, Mishra sat on dharna in the middle of the House. The Supreme Court had earlier termed the acquisition of 10,000 acres of land for the proposed project as “illegal.” The Supreme Court had reprimanded the Odisha government and imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh on Vedanta. The High Court of Orissa in 2010 quashed the process of land acquisition for the university and directed the authorities to return the acquired land to their owners. Later, the Odisha government and the Anil Agarwal Foundation had moved the Supreme Court to save the proposed Rs 15,000-crore Vedanta University project in Puri. The Odisha government had signed an agreement with Vedanta Foundation for the university in 2006.
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