Cuttack, May 3: A drive against the demolition of illegal religious structures continued here today with bulldozers razing the concrete constructions of Bedanta Ashram, the largest of them.

The concrete constructions take up an area of nearly 20,000sqft. There were allegations of the administration not having issued notices to the ashram before demolition. A resident too said they were taken by surprise.

“An encroachment case had been registered in connection with the land. We had approached the authorities for regularisation as the land was developed by planting around 3,000 trees since it was occupied in 2000. But the authorities refused,” the in-charge of Bedanta Ashram Anantapuri Das said.

A senior official said Bedanta Ahram had encroached upon 8.316 acres on the banks of Kathajodi river on the south-western fringes of the city.

The ashram was among the 164 “unauthorised religious structures” identified by revenue authorities in the Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) area.

The office of the Cuttack collector had recommended eviction in all the cases. The unauthorised religious structures had encroached upon nearly 49 acres on public roads, government land as well as alongside the banks of the Mahanadi and Kathajodi rivers.

According to official records, the major encroachers were Asharam Bapu temple (4 acres), Mahalaxmi temple (3.842 acres), Shyam Shyam temple (2.7 acres), Mausi Maa Mandira (2 acres) and Ramanigameswar temple (1.735 acre).

“Demolition of unauthorised religious institutions on government land is okay, but action should be taken against those officials who deliberately allowed construction of such nature instead of preventing it by timely action,” said Satyajit Roy, a resident of Bidanasi.

“No religious structure causing obstruction on a public road or creating public nuisance should be allowed to stand. But the structures within tolerable limits should not be demolished,” said Samir Dey, former Cuttack city MLA and former urban development minister.

Cuttack Matha Mandira Surakhya Samiti president Arun Panda said: “Structures of religious nature that had come up on the riverbed which had not been earmarked for any purpose by the government should be allowed to remain as they at least prevent bastis (slums) from mushrooming.”

He said his organisation had submitted a memorandum on the matter to the revenue divisional commissioner, central zone, Arabinda Kumar Padhee.

“We will follow the order issued by Orissa High Court. Unauthorised religious structures on public roads, land reserved for various public purposes and alongside the riverbanks of Mahanadi and Kathajodi have been identified for demolition,” Padhee told The Telegraph.

Dismissing allegations of action without prior notice, Padhee said: “The demolition drive is being taken up more than two years after the order was issued by the high court. The encroachers were informed on several occasions about the impending eviction. There have been flagrant violations in some cases.”

“In one instance, a religious institution had given an undertaking to clear structures identified as encroachment, but later went ahead with further constructions,” Padhee added.

On January 6, 2011, the high court had ordered: “The religious institutions, which have been constructed after 1987, and do not find mention in the Record of Rights of 1987, and have been constructed over government lands without permission from competent authorities, and cannot be regularised, should be demolished.”

In pursuance of the high court order, the chief secretary had formed a committee under the chairmanship of the revenue divisional commissioner (central zone).

The commissioner of police Bhubaneswar-Cuttack, the municipal commissioner of CMC and vice-chairman of the Cuttack Development Authority were included as its members.

“Around 200 unauthorised religious structures have been identified for demolition,” deputy commissioner of police (Cuttack) Pravin Kumar told The Telegraph. So far, three minor roadside structures of religious nature have been demolished since the drive was undertaken on May 1.

The demolition drive is continuing at Bedanta Ashram.