Cuttack, April 16: The controversy over the extension of city bus service to Cuttack has taken a new turn with the high court setting May 1 as the deadline for starting the service in Silver City. The judges said that the failure to comply with the order would be viewed as contempt of court.

“The high court order assumes significance as no systematic town bus service has existed in Cuttack in the past 70 years,” Cuttack Mahanagar Shanti Committee working president S.N. Sangneria told The Telegraph today.

“The government should not take any further plea against it as the concept of twin cities has failed with the termination of the city bus service route at Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) limits at Phulnakhara,” he said. The court issued the order on Friday while hearing PILs on civic problems in Cuttack.

On January 13, the court had directed for inclusion of Cuttack in one of the routes of the city bus service for Bhubaneswar by March 31.

The state counsel, however, submitted that the city bus service for Bhubaneswar and Puri was made operational under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) with financial assistance of both the Centre and the state government. Bhubaneswar and Puri had been included under the JNNURM programme, but not Cuttack.

But the court was not impressed. The two-judge bench of Justice B.P. Das and Justice M.M.Das directed the state urban development department and state transport department to ensure that the town bus service is extended to Cuttack and 15 buses are operated in the route from May 1. “If the government fails this time, it would be viewed as contempt of court and appropriate action would be initiated,” the bench warned.

A controversy over the non-inclusion of Cuttack in one of the routes of the city bus service for Bhubaneswar had sparked off in October last year with Cuttack Banchao Committee activists wearing black badges and staging a protest demanding running of the Bhubaneswar bus service till OMP Square. The committee had demanded extending of the bus service along NH-5 to Jagatpur en route to OMP Square and Markatnagar through Ring Road along Kathajodi river.

The issue of encroachment along the Kathajodi embankment road from Sishu Bhawan to Naraj also figured during the hearing on Friday.

The court issued directions to the Cuttack collector to ensure that the stretch of road remains encroachment-free.

The court further gave a free hand to the inspector-in-charge of Bidanasi police station to proceed following law and if necessary, arrest persons who encroach on that road.