Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government is planning to regularise encroachments on its own land.

Odisha revenue minister Maheswar Mohanty said: "The government is contemplating to regularise the 'unobjectionable' encroachment on government land."

The revenue minister, however, clarified that the slum settlements that had come up on the government land would not be regularised.

Mohanty said a drat legislative bill was being formulated to this effect, and it would be placed in the Odisha Assembly for its approval.

Official sources said unobjectionable encroachments on excess vacant land vested in the Odisha government under the Urban Land Ceiling Act would be regularised, if the bill came into effect.

Opposition Congress and the BJP alleged that the government move to regularise encroachments was aimed to favour influential persons and woo voters on the eve of the coming elections.