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Ex-Minister gives notice to Chief Secretary

BHUBANESWAR: In a new development in the matter pertaining to alleged irregularities in the implementation of some World Bank-funded health schemes in Orissa, former Health Minister of the State Bijayshree Routray on Sunday said his lawyer had given a notice to Chief Secretary Ajit Kumar Tripathy for filing a Rs. 1 crore-defamation suit against him.

At a press conference here, Mr. Routray said his lawyer had sent the notice under Section 80 of the Code of Civil Procedure to Mr. Tripathy giving him 60 days notice to pay damages of Rs. 1 crore and tender apology for causing harm and injury to his reputation.

Failing to pay the damages and beg apology, an appropriate case would be filed against Mr. Tripathy in a Bhubaneswar court, Mr. Routray’s lawyer Budhadev Routray said in the notice.

Mr. Routray said even though the government had ordered a vigilance probe into the alleged irregularities on January 20 this year, four days later Mr. Tripathy told media persons that he was the former Health Minister whose name figured in a World Bank report for allegedly receiving a bribe Rs. 5 lakh.

The former Minister, who had earlier demanded a CBI probe into the irregularities in question, said he had written a letter to Mr. Tripathy on February 2, but the reply that he received was not satisfactory.

In the seven-page notice, Mr. Routray’s lawyer said that when the vigilance probe was in progress, Mr. Tripathy acted in an “irresponsible manner and committed the worst form of pernicious and motivated character assassination” of his client.

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