Berhampur: The Ganjam district administration has finally demolished a 46-year-old building to remove encroachment on revenue department land here.

The building stood on 334 decimals at Panda Colony near Engineering School Square here. The Vincent Odisha Society claimed that the land belonged to them. About 60 persons belonging to 12 families resided in the building

However, Berhampur tehsildar Ranjit Parida said the building was built on the government land.

"Since 2016 there is a clear-cut direction to demolish the building. Six months ago we had served notice to the residents to vacate the building. The final notice was served on May 4. But when the families did not vacate the building, we sought police help to take it under our possession," said Panda. "We are planning to construct a government office there." On the other hand, Chakrapani Patra, advocate of the Vincent Odisha Society, claimed that the land had been bought from a private party in 1972.

"The patta had been issued in favour of the Vincent Odisha Society and Berhampur Development Authority also approved the plan of the building. The case for the ownership of the land is also under trial in various courts. We had approached Orissa High Court for a stay after the district administration served the final notice on May 4. But the court was on holiday on Saturday and Sunday and the district administration took the step before the case was listed. We will demand justice in the high court," said Patra.

Berhampur sub-collector Siddhartha Sankar Swain, tehsildar Ranjit Parida, additional tehsildar Sasanka Sekhar Patra visited the spot.