High court: Delivering marching orders

Cuttack, Nov. 21: Orissa High Court’s direction to the Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) to take over 448 acre in Balukhand Mauza, Puri, may secure the availability of drinking water for a while, but the move would also displace 1,000 families.

Balukhand Mauza, under Puri Municipality, serves as an underground reserve for sweet (potable) water used by local people and tourists alike. Recently, the Puri Municipality had allotted land in the area to various “influential” people to construct residences. Also, the civic body leased out several plots to individuals under two housing schemes. “Nearly 1,000 families who had availed of land under the two schemes face eviction now,” said Saroj Kumar Mitra, an activist of the newly formed Balukhand Basah Surakshya Samiti.

Members of the group are mainly from Srikhetra Colony, PKIIT Colony and Puri Site Service Colony. They were in Cuttack today to consult lawyers before filing a revision petition in the high court.

“The people who had availed the land had spent their lifetime earnings in buying it and constructing their homes on it. Where will they go if they are evicted?” asked advocate Pradip Jena, also a part of the group.

Acting on a PIL, the two-judge bench of Chief Justice A.K. Ganguly and Justice B. Mohapatra, on November 14 had asked PHED to take possession of 448 acre and keep it free from construction. Construction in the area, they felt, would endanger the supply of drinking water to the town.

While setting a four-week deadline for the completion of the take over process, the high court had also directed PHED to cancel the lease deeds made by Puri Municipality and demolish any constructions and pay compensation to the lessees as according to law.

According to official sources, Joint Water Works Committee (Puri), with the district collector as the chairman, had acquired the zone, however, the land was under the control of the Puri Municipality since 1966. In 1982 the Orissa government had stated that the management of water in Puri would be taken over by PHED, but the order was not implemented till date.

Previously, the Orissa Housing Development Corporation had tried to start construction of homes in Balukhand Mauza. But, the proposal was dropped following objections from the technical committee.

The committee had observed that construction of houses in the area would contaminate the ground water and adversely affect the water quality.