The Hindu                       20.02.2013

474 acres of government land encroached in BMC jurisdiction

Staff Reporter 

Government land worth hundreds of crores has been encroached by unscrupulous elements in Bhubaneswar town.

As
per the written reply furnished by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in the
State Assembly, 474 acres of government land are documented to be under
encroachment in the jurisdiction of Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation
(BMC). As many as 10579 encroachment cases have been filed in 53
localities in the BMC area, Mr. Patnaik informed.

There
are over 5000 encroachers of government land patches in Jaydev Vihar,
where land prices have steeply increased and gone beyond the reach of
common people. As per the estimate, 148.069 acres of precious land is
under occupation of private persons.

Encroachment of
such a vast patch of government land is attributed to presence of
capital city’s largest slum – Salia Sahi – in the locality.

Nearby
Chandrasekharpur – a posh locality – records high concentration of
encroachment. About 33 acres of land in the Chandrasekharpur area have
been encroached. Government lands in localities such as Gadakan, Patia,
Baramunda and Pokhariput have been grabbed.

Incidentally,
localities where land prices are very high have witnessed more number
of encroachments than that of villages on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar.