Bhubaneswar, July 18: Residents of the oldest multi-storey colony in the city, comprising 2,265 houses with more than 10,000 people staying in them, went public with their grievances yesterday.

Twenty-five years of neglect of the colony by the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) triggered protest in Chandrasekharpur, where residents organised a public hearing citing their grievances and listed 17 demands for the development of the locality in the presence of local representatives.

The event was the first of its kind in the city where the citizens took the help of a public forum to air their demands. More than 500 people were present at the hearing.

The colony, which was constructed during 1984-87, came up with 2,616 houses in different categories. The BDA allotted some houses to the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development and the state government and the remaining to common applicants. However, according to the citizens’ committee, many houses were in bad shape because of low-quality construction. Interestingly, whenever people want to take any step to save the structures from crumbling, the fear of the BDA demolition squad haunts them.

“Many house owners, who have tried to repair their buildings, have received a demolition notice from the BDA. This has become more frequent in the last two months. If the people are doing something illegal, then why were the development authorities were silent in the past?’’ said Ajit Dash, general secretary of the committee.

The office-bearers of the committee said that after consultation with the citizens at several hearings, the common demands were listed in a memorandum addressed to the governor. The Telegraph spoke to several participants at the public meet.

The vice-president of the citizens’ committee alleged that the court in the BDA, which examines the implementation of the Odisha Development Authority (ODA) Act, 1982, never listened to the plea or answered of the applicants properly. “It should function in a democratic manner,” he said.

Another resident of the colony, Saroj Kumar Patnaik, said: “There is not enough parking space even for two-wheelers.”

“In spite of being situated in such a busy locality, the BDA Colony does not have either an ATM counter or a post office. Mothers picking up their children near the main road face a lot of problems during the monsoon because the area has no shed for people waiting for the bus. The authorities should immediately start constructing them,” said Prasanta Kumar Behara, another resident of the area.

MLA Bhubaneswar (north) Bhagirathi Badajena, who was present at the hearing, said: “It took three-and-a-half years for the citizens’ body to let me know about their problems. I will take the matter to the department concerned so that appropriate steps are taken to address them.”

Mayor Ananta Narayan Jena also assured a better cleanliness drive of the area that falls in ward No. 11 of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation and hoped that with the proposal for a global tender for privatisation of the sanitation system across the city, the largest colony under the BDA would benefit the most.

However, for big parks, community and business centres, he asked the members to call on the BDA authorities because they had the “money and mechanism in place”.

Sudarshan Das, a social worker, said: “The people should not have waited for 25 years to get their rights. One has to be vocal about his or her rights and the residents must not forget their right to life and dignity.” Interestingly, not a single BDA official was present at the hearing.

The 17-point charter of demands includes a common boundary wall for the blocks for the high-income group, the middle-income group and the low-income group. The colony residents should be allowed to form societies to take up the maintenance work of their individual blocks, it added.