Bhubaneswar, July 13: Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) lacks a proper demolition squad with insufficient manpower.

This seems to be evident from the fact that out of 18,823 cases dealing with building regulation violations, the BDA has managed to take action in just 231.

The enforcement wing includes just one female officer and four assistants.

A senior officer of the development authority said: “How can you expect the team to perform well when there is no police force and the required equipment to accompany it. We have already written to the state government to help us with a deputy superintendent of police and a platoon of police force. Moreover, we have volunteered to provide the salary component from our own fund, but there has been no response so far.”

BDA vice-chairman Deoranjan Kumar Singh termed the situation as “institutional deficiency”, as the development body is not being able to meet the people’s expectations.

Sources said as per the Orissa Development Authority Act, while 18,823 cases had been booked, demolition order was passed in 8,922 cases. However, just 231 cases have been executed.

In September 2010, the authority detected 24 violations of building plan in “01-02 Scheme” at Jaydev Vihar. But so far nothing has happened. The houses meant for residential purposes are being used for commercial purposes.

At present, the authority has got 884 employees. Out of that 550 are peons and 200 clerks. There are nine Class-I officers, and 143 Class-II officers (including the section officers).

With the authority planning to expand the area under its jurisdiction from 419sqkm to more than 1,000sqkm following a notification by the housing and urban development department on December 18, 2010, the absence of quality manpower has become a serious problem.

In the notification, the state government informed that 367 more revenue villages had to be included in the authority plan area.

This new expansion plan would perhaps be the biggest in the history of the city since its establishment in 1948.

After the expansion plan, the metropolitan area of the capital city will now be termed as the Bhubaneswar Development Plan Area (BDPA) consisting of districts of Cuttack, Khurda and Puri.

The new addition will have 263 villages from Khurda, 88 from Puri and 16 from Cuttack district.

With this new proposal, there will be 572 revenue villages under the development zone.

However, the development authority has got just 30 to 40 engineers, while its basic requirement is more than 100.

“With work pressure mounting, we need more planners. However, at present, we have four planners instead of the required 18. This needs urgent redressal,” the vice-chairman said.