The Pioneer 18.11.2010
GA Dept dragging feet in 10,000 eviction casesSaroj Mishra | Bhubaneswar
Even as the State Government has issued an ordinance called the Odisha Public Premises (Eviction of unauthorised occupants) amendment and validation ordinance, 2010 to evict encroachers in the municipal areas, doubts are being expressed on its effectiveness as more than 10,000 ( 5 (II)) cases in which the General Administration(GA) Department has won degrees is gathering dust.
The Government had won degrees in courts in theses cases after spending lot of time and money. But eyebrows have been raised why the evictions are not being carried out for years together.
It might be mentioned here that the GA Department which functions under the aegis of the Chief Minister is owner of all the land. Most of the encroachers of GA lands are by the influential class, having contacts with ruling party and the officials. Most of the land has been encroached for constructing residences, commercial complexes and even shockingly some schools have grabbed GA land, said reliable sources.
Interestingly, the encroachers are giving these illegal buildings on GA land on rent and collecting a handsome amount. This trend is going on for years with the active connivance of some unscrupulous GA Department staff, who remain mute spectators after their palms are greased on a monthly basis, said the sources.
Of late the State Government has decided to act stringently against the encroachers and impose fines and collect five times the amount of the land cost. But this information has made the encroachers rub their hands in glee as the land cost in the city in the prime locations where the land has been encroached is more than 20 to 30 times higher than the Government rates.
The GA's reticent attitude against the encroachers has put a question mark on the ordinance proving useful for other agencies like the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) and the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporations (BMC) to evict encroachers.
In the past though many joint evictions have been carried out by the GA Department, BDA and BMC mostly the roadside vendors and other small fries have been targeted sparing the rich and the powerful.
Surprisingly, the BDA has approved plans on these encroached land.
Interestingly, in the tenure of an honest and transparent Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik the encroachment cases have spiraled from 1,000 to 5,000 as per GA Department records. In most of the cases, the local corporators have themselves grabbed land or aided in encroachment on Government land and exploiting it for commercial purposes to maintain a flamboyant lifestyle.
