Bhubaneswar, June 10: The state government today promulgated an ordinance prohibiting grabbing of land owned by the government, local authority or public institutions.

Henceforth, a squatter will be punishable with imprisonment up to seven years and fined up to Rs 20,000.

The ordinance was notified in the Odisha gazette after it received the presidential assent. A bill will be brought in the Assembly in the coming monsoon session to replace the ordinance.

The Odisha Land Grabbing (Prohibition) Ordinance, 2015, prohibits land-grabbing of any form. Grabbing of land belonging to the government, local authorities, Bhoodan Yagna Samiti (a society authorised by law to receive land gifted by the people under Bhoodan, a voluntary land reform movement in India started by Acharya Vinoba Bhave in 1951) and religious or charitable institutions invites severe penalty.

Every offence punishable under the ordinance shall be cognisable and no person accused under the ordinance shall be released on bail. The burden of proof that the land has not been grabbed will be the accused. A special court will be formed for speedy inquiry and trial. It will consist of a chairman and four members (two judicial and revenue members each). A judge or former judge of the high court will head this court, while sitting or former district judges will be appointed as judicial members and administrative officers who hold or have held a post not below the rank of a district collector will be the revenue members.

Giridhari Das, an expert in revenue laws, said: "The new law will have teeth. The existing Orissa Prevention of Land Encroachment Act (Oplea) does not have teeth to deal with land grabbers."

Under Oplea, land encroachment is not a cognisable offence but only deals with government land, and the government can only evict the squatters.

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik had directed the revenue department officials to table the bill in the coming Assembly session, said sources.

Allegations of land-grabbing by influential persons, including BJD members at Ghangapatna, had rocked the state last year, forcing the state government to order a crime branch inquiry. Besides, allegation of misuse of industrial plots allotted in the industrial estates had also surfaced in the state. Several instances of grabbing of government land in Bhubaneswar and its outskirts had also come to the fore. The government itself had admitted in the Assembly that more than 477 acres of government land had been encroached upon in the city and its surrounding areas.

The government admitted that more than 39,000 acres of government land was lying encroached upon in various districts across the state.