Cuttack, June 1: Revenue authorities have identified 164 “unauthorised constructions of religious nature” for eviction in the Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) area.
The structures had encroached upon over 49 acres on public roads as well as alongside the banks of the Mahanadi river and the Kathajodi river. The identification process has been undertaken as part of compliance of an order issued by Orissa High Court.
Office of the Cuttack collector had recommended eviction in all the cases and submitted the list of unauthorised constructions — mostly temples — to a committee a fortnight ago for scrutiny and implementation of the order. The chief secretary had constituted the panel.
The high court had ordered for demolition of “religious institutions”, which were constructed after 1987, over government lands without permission from the competent authorities and did not find mention in the Record of Rights (RoRs) of 1987.
“The revenue authorities are directed to prepare a list of such religious institutions where after two months time shall be given for removal of the unauthorised structures along with the deities therein. If the said unauthorised structures along with the deities are not removed within the time granted for the purpose, the authorities will be at liberty to remove the deities and demolish the unauthorised structures”, the court had said in its order on January 6.
“The chief secretary is directed to form a committee under chairmanship of the revenue divisional commissioner (central zone), Cuttack with commissioner of police of the Bhubaneswar-Cuttack Police Commissionerate, municipal commissioner of the corporation and vice-chairman of the Cuttack Development Authority (CDA) as its members,” the court had further ordered.
“The committee, in its first meeting, has divided the entire corporation area into four zones in the lines of the existing four police zones in Cuttack city for demolition and removal of the constructions,” a senior revenue official said.
“The committee has further formed an anti-encroachment squad for each of the four zones to identify as directed by the high court the structures which do not find mention in the Record of Rights (RoRs) of 1987,” the official said. The identification process, however, has not yet started.
The anti-encroachment squad, to function under supervision of the assistant commissioner of police of the concerned police zone, included a revenue supervisor and representing officers of the corporation, the CDA, the roads and buildings department, the irrigation department and the power distribution company.
Official sources said the CDA had also submitted to the committee a list of 35 unauthorised religious structures that had come up at Markat Nagar, Bidanasi Housing Project area and Sikharpur Housing project in Mahanadi Vihar.
The structures had been constructed on plots reserved for various public purposes, such as, parks, primary schools, community centres, roads, group housing, police stations and public utility centres, the CDA secretary stated in his report.
The high court had, in its order, directed for formation of the anti-encroachment squads to keep vigil on the encroachments and take effective steps against the encroachers “at the appropriate time”.
“The squads shall be answerable to the committee which shall sit once in two months to review action taken by the squads,” the court specified in its order.
