Construction under way for the miniplex coming up at Mahanadi Vihar in Cuttack. Picture by Badrika Nath Das

Cuttack, Dec. 25: Orissa High Court has asked the state vigilance to file its status report on the inquiry into the alleged grabbing of government land adjacent to the plot leased out by the development authority to a private party to set up the city’s first miniplex at Mahanadi Vihar.

The court also asked the vigilance department to mention the current market value of the excess land, which, the state vigilance found out, had been under the possession of the private party.

The court, while hearing a PIL seeking intervention against the land grabbing, directed the state vigilance and the Cuutack Development Authority to comply with the order when the matter was taken up for next hearing after the winter vacation.

The petitioner, Mahanadi Vihar resident Sanjay Kumar Jena, 42, had accused the authority of inaction on land grabbing and unauthorised construction even after the state vigilance had investigated the matter in 2011.

For construction of the multiplex, the authority had allotted a 9,548-sqft plot on lease to SGBL (India) Limited against Rs 1.25 crore on December 28, 2010. It admitted that the state vigilance probe had subsequently detected that a plot measuring 10,149.071sqft had been under the possession of the private party. According to the company’s request, the excess 601.07sqft was allotted to it later.

In March, the authority had asked the private party to pay the price of the land with 18 per cent compound interest in six monthly instalments. The firm was asked to deposit Rs 14.60 lakh.

The petitioner had raised objections against the authority’s order, alleging that it was a case of passing on precious government land to a private person on a token amount after facilitating the possession of surplus land during the allotment.

The PIL has sought intervention against the authority’s inaction following detection of deviation involving construction over 1,01,086sqft in the plot. The vigilance had also detected construction over excess 7,251.60sqft over four floors in deviation of the approved plan.

After the vigilance inquiry, the authority had only initiated an unauthorised construction case against Sankar Gupta, managing director of the firm on December 3, 2012, but not followed with any action to demolish the construction, the petition said.

In his affidavit, the authority’s secretary conceded that though an unauthorised construction case was initiated and notice to stop the construction was issued, “the proceeding is pending finalisation”. On September 18, the high court had directed the authority to stop illegal construction on the land allotted for the miniplex.

The authority had said the miniplex would cater to the needs of market facilities. According to the petition, “there is not an inch of land left for common use of the people there” due to the grabbing of government land adjoining the plot.

The construction undertaken for the miniplex in excess to the land allotted on auction lease at the entrance to a housing area “will create traffic hazard for the locality”, the PIL contends.