Cuttack: The Bidanasi land scam, involving large-scale illegal possession of government land in the city's south western fringe, is back in focus with Orissa High Court asking the state authority to recover the land from the unauthorised occupants identified by the CBI four years ago.

The court has also given the state authority the liberty to regularise the possession.

The scam had surfaced after advocate Chittaranjan Mohanty, during the course of hearing a PIL on development of a road in Cuttack Development Authority project area filed by him, made a fresh plea in 2011 alleging that revenue officials in connivance with land mafia were allowing encroachment and facilitating possession on government land in Bidanasi. The high court had ordered a CBI probe into the case on January 18, 2012.

The CBI confirmed large-scale illegal possession of government land in its final report submitted in the court in July 2014. The report was then submitted to the state government.

The scam had since gone into oblivion till the petitioner filed a fresh plea in November last year seeking direction to the authorities "to consider the recommendation of the CBI and take appropriate action in public interest". The court disposed of the PIL on July 20.

"We dispose of the writ petition with the observation that the state authority shall take necessary steps to recover the possession from the unauthorised occupants or if the government feels appropriate to regularise the possession, it may do so in accordance with law," Chief Justice Vineet Saran and Justice B.R. Sarangi said in the order.

The CBI inquiry report said proper plotting was done on the government land by "unscrupulous elements with roads and thereafter sold to the buyers".

Majority of the encroachers had paid money to unscrupulous elements for taking possession of the government land but they had no receipts of such payments.

"The findings of the enquiry and the fact that no encroachment removal was undertaken in the area before 2012 when the high court intervened in the matter, are a telling indicator of the fact that the machinery of the revenue department, both at the cutting edge and supervisory levels, has been thoroughly ineffective in protecting the government land," the report had observed.