‘Odisha govt had signed MoUs with Seashore’

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Dec 3: 

The Odisha government today admitted that it had signed five memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Seashore Group of Companies.

Replying to two separate questions of Chandrasekhar Majhi and Pradip Purohit, Tourism and Culture minister Ashok Panda said the state government had signed MoUs with the Seashore group for development of five tourist destinations at Atri, Ranipur-Jharial, Nrushinghnath, Harishankar and the Boating Club at Cuttack.

The MoUs entrusted the development and management of the panthasalas at these places to the Seashore group, the minister said.

To an another question of BJP member Dilip Ray, Cooperation minister Damodar Rout said the state government had also signed a MoU with the Seashore in the Cooperative sector for revival and development of three defunct cold storages in Cuttack, Hindol and Dhenkanal on Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) mode.

“However, the government later cancelled the MoU after the company failed to renovate these three cold storages,” Panda told the House.

He also informed that the CBI had taken four files pertaining to the MoU from the state Tourism department.

It may be mentioned that the CBI is investigating the multi-crore chit fund scam in the Seashore Group of companies.