Bhubaneswar, May 25: The newly constituted committee by the state government to retrieve government land under encroachment has detected nearly 1,100 acres of such land in the capital city.
The committee, functioning under the revenue department, pointed out that 600 acres had been illegally taken away by influential people of Puri, 1,800 acres in industrial hub Kalinga Nagar and 300 acres in Cuttack city.
In order to retrieve the land, the government has decided to take appropriate measures. Revenue minister Surjya Naryan Patro said: “Influential people have captured the land through fraudulent means. We have initiated the process to get back our land. We are also thinking of handing over the case to the crime branch for further inquiry.”
Patro added that most of the encroached lands are on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar. “While 761 acres have been encroached in Gothapatana area, 236 acres in Malipada, 80 acres in Sampur and 45 acres in other parts of the city,” he said.
In the emerging industrial hub of the state — Kalinga Nagar — 1,800 acres have been encroached by various people. Along the Puri-Konark marine drive, encroachers have occupied 600 acres of government land. “Three hundred acres of encroached lands have been identified in the Cuttack city alone,” said land-cell chief Dhiren Das.
Patro said: “We will take the help of the Industrial Development Corporation (IDCO), state housing board and the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) to retrieve the land. Once the land is retrieved, we will sell it to the public. The government will also engage lawyers to fight various land related cases pending in different courts in the state.”
The government is hopeful that it could generate nearly Rs 1,000 crore by selling the encroached land. An acre on the outskirts of the capital city is pegged at Rs 2 crore. Land on the Puri-Konark marine drive is around Rs 50 lakh an acre. The land in Kalinga Nagar area costs around Rs 60 lakh an acre. Patro said a meeting of the collectors of the respective districts would be called next week to chalk out a plan to pursue the matter further.
