The BDA housing colony in Chandrasekharpur. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, July 25: Residents of BDA Colony in Chandrasekharpur are up in arms because they allege the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) has cheated them of four acres of land.

They alleged that 11.44 acres of the total colony land shown in sale deeds actually measures 7.44 acres, and the BDA was not allowing residents of the colony to build boundary walls. The authorities claimed that they could not allow the residents to build walls on the four acres of land (outside the plinth area of 7.44 acres) that still belongs to the general administration department.

Members of the Citizens’ Committee, BDA Colony in Chandrasekharpur, which consists of several apartment blocks, said the blocks had no security enclosures and when residents tried to erect boundary walls, the BDA enforcement wing slapped notices on them. When the citizens met the BDA officials to convey their grievances, they found that the land did not belong to development authority, it was the general administration department that owned it.

“If the general administration department is the owner of the land, why is the BDA objecting to us taking steps to ensure security? The BDA officials have admitted that the land outside the plinth area of 7.44 acres (consisting of 2,265 houses of different categories) belongs to the general administration department. As the colony has no common boundary wall of its own, goons are taking away valuables at will,” said Dharitri Prasad Mishra, president of the committee.

He said the BDA authorities had said that outside the apartment plinth area, land could be re-used by the general administration department and the residents had no right to protest. “Such comments from an agency of the housing and urban development department violates the fundamental rights of the people granted under Article 21 of the Constitution,” alleged Mishra. He said the BDA had provided similar facilities to the nearby Nabard Colony, and there was no cause for such “step-motherly treatment”.

General secretary of the Citizens’ Committee Ajit Dash said: “When we had paid Rs 1.5 lakh way back in 1987 for the higher income group apartments, there were no takers for apartment blocks here. Since then land prices have gone up several fold, and real estate builders are providing gated communities to buyers. The authorities must relax the rules a little so that we can arrange for security.”

The BDA officials have issued demolition notices to many house owners, but they seem to be ignoring others who are violating norms more than others, alleged some residents. “The enforcement officials have become selective. There have been peculiar instances of issuing notices to first and second floor owners for violation, while letting the ground floor occupant go scot free. Can people staying in the top floors go for extension if there is no extension by the ground floor occupant?” asked Suryamani Tripathy, vice-president of the committee.

Tripathy also alleged that when nearby shop owners and vendors occupy free land inside the colony and put up their stalls near their apartments without taking permission, the development authority did not complain.

BDA officials, however, said they had originally bought just 7.44 acres from the general administration department to develop the colony with the condition that the remaining area would remain open for residents to develop roads, use as open space, parks or community-based facilities.

“The condition with the general administration department was that the rest of the colony land would have a definite land-use pattern and if the residents violated it, there would be action. There was no provision for boundary wall in the agreement, so the residents cannot ask for additional structures as it would amount to violation of the original sale deed or agreement,” a senior land official said.