Bhubaneswar, Jan. 13: The Union ministry of environment and forests has sought a report from the state government on public grievances regarding demolition of 316 hotels in Puri for violating the coastal regulation zone norms.

The ministry's joint secretary Manoj Kumar Singh, in a communiqué on December 20, 2016, urged the environment department's principal secretary S.C. Mohapatra to look into the matter.

Four petitioners - Ashok Kumar Pattnaik, Badal Majumdar, Jagannath Bastia and Mamata Majumdar - had filed the grievance petition to demolish the hotels. Bastia, who is president of the Beach Protection Council of Odisha, had first filed the petition at Orissa High Court to demolish the hotels as they flouted the pollution norms. It was alleged that these hotels were polluting the Puri beach.

Bastia stated that the high court, on June 19, 2002, ordered the state government to demolish all hotels in the coastal regulatory zone in Puri. The National Green Tribunal again reiterated the order on October 24, 2013. However, nothing has yet been done in this regard.

Another petitioner Mamata Majumdar, in her petition, stated that the coastal regulation zone had been created in 1991 when an order was passed to ensure that the area within 500 metres of the sea would have only trees and no construction whatsoever. Majumdar, in her petition, stated that the 316 hotels had neither sanctioned plans nor permission from the coastal regulatory zone authorities. She had sought a CBI probe into the matter. The housing and urban development department's deputy secretary, on January 11, sought a report from the Puri Konark Development Authority's vice-chairman on the issue.

On February 20, 2015, the high court made it clear that the development authority had no power to order demolition of any illegal hotel. Hearing a petition of the Puri Hotel Association, the bench of Justice Biswanath Rath observed that the authority was just an implementing body and had no right to take any policy decision or action against hotel owners. "The court observed that the Orissa Municipal Act's rules and norms would be applicable and not that of the development authority, because the Puri seashore came under coastal regulation zone," an association counsel said.

The association moved court against the authority, alleging that it had no power to demolish illegal hotels on the seashore or issue permission for their construction.

The authority had issued a direction that hotels should use only 33 per cent of the land for construction and leave the rest vacant. It also identified and issued demolition notices to the 316 hotels that had illegally encroached on the seashore.

A housing and urban development department official said the authority had been instructed to ascertain whether these hotels were violating the coastal regulation zone norms. "The department would take the final decision on the matter after the report," he said.