Bhubaneswar, March 27: The enforcement wing of the development authority will become part of the municipal corporation.

The wing, which will function under the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC), will carry out enforcement activities for Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) and other government agencies as well. The corporation's deputy commissioner (recovery) will head the wing.

It will have five enforcement squads each headed by one inspector. In addition, there will be two demolition teams. The wing will start functioning from April 1.

Sources said according to the Constitution's 74th amendment, a municipal corporation should have the power to manage the enforcement and recovery wings.

However, so far the BDA and the BMC had separate enforcement wings.

The housing and urban development department in February last, however, decided to bring all the enforcement activities under one roof to ensure better coordination and efficiency.

Deputy commissioner-cum-public relations officer, BMC, Srimanta Mishra said: "The central enforcement monitoring and committee which is already functioning under the development authority will now be operating from its office at the municipal corporation. The committee was doing a great job and has already recovered over hundreds of acres of encroached government land. It will now take care of encroachments and carry out demolition according to the Odisha Development Authority Act, 1982."

Sources said the decision to shift the entire enforcement wing of the development authority to the corporation was taken at a meeting chaired by BDA vice-chairman and municipal commissioner Krishan Kumar yesterday.

The meet also decided to shift the ODA court functioning to the BMC.

"People who used to file cases under the building plan violations and other issues under the ODA Act, 1982, will now have to come to the municipal office to lodge their complaints," said a senior corporation official.

However, the municipal public relations officer also said that while it had been decided to start the plan approval and court in the BMC on April 1, a grace period of two weeks was needed as shifting would take some time.

The planning cell, which has already been transferred from the BDA to the BMC, is likely to function from the upmarket BMC-Bhawani Mall in Saheed Nagar from April 1.

All the building plans, including approval for single and multi-storied units, will be passed from the new office. The cell was temporarily functioning from an office at the state urban development authority building adjacent to the BMC office.

"According to the 74th constitutional amendment, services such as piped water and power supply should also come under the administrative control of the corporation. So, the authorities should also try to bring them under them in near future," said lawyer Prabir Das.

A senior corporation official, however, said the BMC had already set up a grievance redressal system through which water supply and power related problems would be resolved from April end.

"If things go as per plan, all citizen-centric services will be coordinated by the corporation," he said.