Bimbadhar Das shows the document of ownership of land. Seen with him is his eldest daughter Sashmita. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, Nov. 1: A family owning around 54 decimal of land worth about Rs 70 lakh in the heart of the city is forced to live in a make-shift house.

While part of the land has been encroached by two of their neighbours, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has built a concrete road with an accompanying drain on the remaining portion.

For owner Bimbadhar Das, the situation is tragic. A father of three daughters, he has been running from pillar to post since 1992 to get back his land. Das had purchased the land on December 28, 1978. He was then an employee of the Directorate of Sports and was staying elsewhere, which was why he could not build a house on the plot. Taking advantage of his absence, the neighbours started encroaching upon his land.

When he approached the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) for a building plan approval in January 1992, the development authority in a letter on April 2, 1992, said that the land was not for housing purposes as it had already been marked for a 100-ft road. But sources said the 100-ft road never existed in the BDA’s master plan. With an eight-ft encroachment on one side and a 17-ft on the other, Das’ land has almost been squeezed into a rectangular structure. Apart from that, the civic body constructed a concrete road and an accompanying drain, leaving no space for the land’s original owner.

The land is situated in a prime locality such as Nayapalli in front of the Iskcon Temple and near the NH-5, was detected by two lady enforcement officers of the BDA and the BMC. Interestingly, two lady enforcement officers of the BDA and BMC detected the way the land was usurped.

“We have seen Das’s eldest daughter running to the BDA office almost daily. Later, a joint team of the amins of the BDA and officers of the revenue inspector’s office in Bhubaneswar conducted an inquiry. On July 11, 2011, the joint inspection found that Das was the original owner of the land. Both the BDA amin and the revenue inspector have thus filed a report justifying Das’s stand. As a matter of fact, the BDA, the general administration department and the BMC authorities knew that Das’s land was usurped. But, nobody ever came forward to help Das,” said a senior BDA official on condition of anonymity.

The BMC officials in the enforcement section were surprised to find that work order was executed by the BMC itself for the road and drain in 2004. However, when the engineering section was asked to find the concerned file, nothing on the said land could be found in the BMC’s engineering wing.

With a residential land being encroached by neighbours and being used in an unauthorised manner by the BMC to construct road and a drain, Das’s fate now lies in the court of both the BDA and the BMC. The case is all the more interesting because the BMC, which is expected to work against encroachments in the city, has been framed here for alleged encroachment of Das’ residential land. However, BMC commissioner Vishal Dev said: “We are going to take all required steps to help the poor family and see that they get justice. If any wrong was done in the past, things could be changed now as a joint verification has already justified the ownership of the land.”