Road work in progress at Gandamunda. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, May 21: In a strange case of land acquisition, 30 families have lost their land to a 100-metre-wide road in the city, but the compensation amount has been awarded to people who were in no way affected by the project.

The land acquisition officer of Khurda district had awarded the compensation to the first-time landowners, who had already sold their land to the now-displaced-people decades ago.

This goof-up happened despite the online land record system of the revenue department clearly showing that the acquired land was in the name of those displaced.

The 2,010-metre road will connect City Women’s College with Gandamunda of which work on a 1,735-metre stretch is already over. But the remaining 285-metre portion has become controversial where lies the 30 plots that have been acquired but compensation not paid to the rightful owners. The public works department (PWD) is executing the project. The road was constructed as an alternative link after the closure of the Siripur-Gandamunda road following expansion of the runway of the city airport.

After hearing the case, the high court on January 8 had asked Khurda collector to deal with the case following the provisions of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, and provide copies of the judgment to each of the displaced. It also disposed the case.

“Most of us are senior citizens and now we have become landless. As the compensation was granted to wrong persons, the 2008 land acquisition notification itself was wrongly executed, making the entire land acquisition process illegal,’’ said Laxmidhar Mohanty, 69, a land loser, who has his record of rights registered in his name since 2001.

Strangely, Mohanty’s compensation was awarded to the erstwhile landowner, who had sold the land to him some 13 years ago. Similarly, 29 others are also facing similar fate as the land acquisition process was carried out in haste.

PWD chief engineer (roads) B.C. Pradhan said: “The compensation issue is purely a subject matter of the revenue department and the district administration, Khurda. They had given us advanced possession of land for construction of the road and we are executing the work.”

PWD executive engineer (division-III) Panchanan Mohanty said: “The compensation amount was already issued and the money had to be kept in the custody of a lower court as there was a dispute. The claimants should approach the local court to get their money.”

As the local residents were protesting the PWD’s work on the 285-metre stretch for not getting compensation, the engineers took the help of the police to their work near the Gandamunda-end on May 2.

Jyoti Pradhan, 26, son of Sarangadhar Pradhan, 58, said: “A big plot owned by my father of nearly 17 gunth were taken over which, as per the current market price, would fetch nearly Rs 3.4 crore. But only Rs 72 lakh was offered as compensation.”

Khurda collector Shalini Pandit said: “I will look into the matter and see that justice is done to the affected people.”

Khurda land acquisition officer Puspalata Sahu said: “The land acquisition process was carried out by my predecessor. But what I heard was that during the acquisition process in 2008, the land owners protested and never cooperated with the officials.”