Govt backed Vista in setting up agro unit

BHUBANESWAR: In what may cause further embarrassment to chief minister Naveen Patnaik in chit fund scam, the economic offence wing (EOW) of state Crime Branch has found that the state agriculture department allegedly showed favour to controversial chit fund company Vista Management Services Limited to do business in the state.
The EOW has found a letter (copy with TOI) in which, BJD leader and former chairman of APICOL (Agricultural Promotion and Investment Corporation of Odisha Limited) Balakrushna Rath asked the Khurda district agriculture officer on November 16, 2011 to issue a ‘promoter profile’ to Vista and process Vista’s proposal to set up an Agro Service Centre (ASC) at Bantala village in the district.Rath died in 2012 following a road accident.
Earlier, APICOL was found to have selected Seashore Group, a Ponzi firm, for some PPP projects. In November last year, CBI had raided Rath’s house in connection with Seashore Group scam at Titlagarh in Balangir district.
On Wednesday, a two-member team of EOW visited APICOL office here and inquired about the corporation’s link with Vista. “We cooperated with the investigating agency and supplied them requisite information,” APICOL’s managing director Om Kar told TOI. “The former chairman had sent the letter to Khurda agriculture officer. But APICOL had no business or financial transaction with Vista,” Kar said.
EOW seized some brochures in which the company claimed it partnered with APICOL in several projects in public-private-partnership (PPP) mode. “The company claimed to have partnered with APICOL for execution of projects worth nearly Rs 500 crore. We are verifying the authenticity,” said an EOW officer.
The brochures claimed the company joined hands with APICOL to set up seed processing unit, mushroom farming, layer farming, emu farming, fishery, onion dehydration plant, cold storage, milk processing unit and maize processing unit at different places in Odisha. The brochures have photographs of a BJD minister and a BJD Rajya Sabha MP, who attended the company’s functions in the past. The company had ambitious plans to set up power plants, schools, hospitals, sugar industry, paper mills and media house.
APICOL, which was under scanner for partnering with controversial Seashore Group in some projects, denied it had any link with Vista Management Services Limited. “We did not select Vista for any PPP project. The company must have misused our brand to garner the faith of public,” Kar said.
In a related development, a team of EOW raided the house of Vista CMD Dev Kumar Panda at Jaypatna in Kalahandi district on Wednesday. On May 17, the EOW arrested Panda from Bhubaneswar railway station while he was planning to leave the country.