Cuttack, Jan. 14: A fight over jurisdiction between two government agencies has come in the way of the removal of debris lying at the demolished Gundicha temple complex here for over two years now.

As the two sides - the irrigation department and the Cuttack Municipal Corporation - fight it out, the temple debris continues to occupy two acres of land on the side of the Ring Road in front of the Odisha Judicial Academy.

Built in 1996, bulldozers razed the Gundicha temple, Santoshi Maa temple and the Ram Mandir in May 2013 to implement an Orissa High Court order that had asked the revenue administration to demolish 40 odd unauthorised religious structures. These religious structures had come up alongside riverbanks, on land reserved for public purposes and public roads.

While the municipal corporation refuses to remove the debris from land owned by the irrigation department, the latter is awaiting approval to carry out the job because of the high costs involved.

Municipal commissioner Gyana Das today told The Telegraph: "It is the responsibility of the irrigation department to remove the Gundicha Temple complex debris as the unauthorised structure had come up on their land." "We have removed debris of demolished unauthorised religious structures on Cuttack Municipal Corporation land," Das said. He went on to add: "Despite repeated reminders, the irrigation department has done nothing except prepare an estimate of over Rs 1 crore for the debris removal work."

The irrigation division in Cuttack, which was expected to clear the debris, had submitted an estimate for the job to the irrigation department.

"We have not received any approval or sanction of funds for it so far. So, we are not in a position to undertake the job," Mahanadi south division (Cuttack) executive engineer P.K. Das told The Telegraph.

A senior official in the revenue administration said that in pursuance of the high court order, a committee under the chairmanship of the revenue divisional commissioner (central) was constituted to undertake the demolition operation. Interestingly, what the senior official, who did not want to be named, said virtually supports the municipal corporation's stand.

"Before undertaking the demolition work, the committee had decided that removal of debris will be done by the respective departments on whose land the structures had come up," he said. He said there was a plan to build a riverbank park after demolishing the Gundicha. But the stalemate over removal of debris has put a question mark over the project.

While the departments fight it out, the mess continues to remain an eyesore on the banks of the Kathajodi river.