Cuttack, May 1: Eleven days after taking over 2.703 acres of government land on the premises of Barabati Stadium, the district administration is yet to decide on what it will do to the structures that had come up on the land.
The Odisha Cricket Academy and two multi-storey buildings have come up on the patch of land the government has recovered on the southeastern part of the stadium.
Cuttack Sadar tehsildar Abanikanta Patnaik told The Telegraph that the district administration had not taken a decision yet.
"We are giving adequate time to the occupants and expect then to vacate on their own. As it is not a case of encroachment, there will be no eviction proceedings," Patnaik said.
Official sources said the district administration planned to first undertake enumeration of the occupants, make an assessment of the structures and the nature of use before taking deciding on how to proceed.
The Odisha government had granted 20.808 acres on lease to Odisha Olympic Association (OOA) in 1949 for promotion of sports. Subsequently, Barabati Stadium had come up on the land. In 1966, another 2.703 acres adjacent to it was leased out to OOA for 90 years.
In 2003, the Cuttack collector had issued direction for cancellation of the lease and taking the land back as it was lying vacant and unused, violating the lease conditions.
By the time the order was implemented, the Odisha Cricket Academy (inaugurated on February 8, 2009), a four-storey building with quarters for the OOA and Odisha Cricket Association employees, had come up on the 2.703 acres. A multi-storey building is also under construction.
Secretary of the OOA Ashirbad Behera, who also holds a similar position with the Odisha Cricket Association, seemed unperturbed.
"They may have taken possession of the land, but nothing has changed. The cricket academy is functioning as usual. Trainees are practising on its pitches," Behera told The Telegraph.
Behera said he had not received any notice for vacating the land.
Sprawling over two acres, the academy was set up at a cost of Rs 6 crore. The Board of Control for Cricket in India provided 50 per cent of the funds to groom young cricketers. It has a lush green field with 10 pitches for round-the-year practice, and a building with dressing, dining and office rooms. The pitches include two synthetic, two concrete and six natural turfs.
On March 9, the tehsildar implemented the Cuttack collector's order by taking back and recording as the leased out plot as government land. Physical possession over the 2.703 acres was taken on April 20.
The authorities, however, remained mum on why it took so many years to implement the order. The 2.703 acres was leased out in 1969 for the purpose of construction of an indoor stadium and dormitory for athletes. The lease condition also included utilisation of the land for the purpose by undertaking construction after approval by the Cuttack collector.
On January 24, a committee of management, constituting of the Cuttack collector and two additional district magistrates, had taken possession of Barabati Palace and the 23 shops inside Barabati Stadium in pursuance of an interim order of the Supreme Court on a special leave petition filed by the OOA.
On November 29, 2014, the high court had set aside the order of the first additional judge (senior division), Cuttack, passed on April 16, 1999, restraining permanently the tehsildar from executing an eviction order related to the 0.705-acre land that had been encroached on for construction of the kalyan mandap and shops.
On December 11, 2014, Supreme Court had issued a stay order on the high court order in response to the special leave petition filed by the OOA challenging it.
However, on January 22, Supreme Court modified the stay order and made an "interim arrangement" for management of Barabati Palace and the 23 shops "till final adjudication of the special leave petition".
