Bhubaneswar: The municipal corporation on Friday issued a public notice asking people who have encroached on natural drainage channels to surrender the land voluntarily or face legal action.
If the land is private, the owners have been asked to come forward and submit it to the civic body for development of the drainage channel for efficient management of storm water. Citizens can apply through a prescribed form for this, which is available on the civic body's website.
Sources said the private landowners would get the compensation according to the official benchmark value of the land.
In case the land belongs to the government and it has been encroached on, action would be taken against the squatter following the Odisha Development Authority (ODA) Act, 1982.
Bhubaneswar has 10 natural drainage channels that carries the storm water load to Gangua Nullah and the Daya river. However, most of the drainage channels are now encroached on.
"The civic body has decided to renovate the 10 major drainage channels following a detailed survey to ensure better drainage so that waterlogging does not occur," says the notice issued by the authorities on their website and local newspapers.
The Comprehensive Development Plan of the city has laid down the course of the 10 natural drainage channels. However, in absence of proper enforcement and regular maintenance, several illegal structures have come up on the drains.
Deputy commissioner of the municipal corporation Srimanta Mishra said everyone should come forward and apply to the municipal commissioner through the appropriate form so that in return, they get the twin benefits of compensation on the one hand and a solution to the waterlogging problem on another.
"Everyone should take this opportunity," said Mishra.
Sources said that if landowners missed this occasion, they would neither get the opportunity to have a building plan approved nor regularisation of any structure in future.
"The officials should have made this move much earlier if this could have saved us from the waterlogging," said Gitam Martha, a resident of Acharya Vihar.
