The disputed portion of land of Damana Government High School in Bhubaneswar, of which a real-estate developer has claimed ownership. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, Nov. 11: Even a school has not been able to escape the eye of real estate developers. A century-old school in Damana in ward No. 2 of the municipal corporation area is under threat from a developer who is allegedly claiming that a portion of the school’s land belongs to him.

But his attempt to grab the land belonging to Damana Government High School is being resisted by local residents.

The developer claims he had purchased the land legally from a person of Gadakana village. The residents are staging a protest near the school so that the employees of the real estate developer cannot start work on the school land. The students of the school too are protesting the move. The real estate developer has already put laterite stones near the boundary wall to start construction.

According to a senior citizen from Damana, Jayakrushna Behera, the school used to be a pathsala and was established around 1880. Later, it was elevated to a lower primary school and after a 1931 settlement, the ownership of the land was transferred to the local Patia king from the zamindari of the Kanika rulers, who were collecting revenue on behalf of the British.

The school building was built in the early 1960s. “In 1968 the lower primary school was elevated to a upper primary school and in the 1990s, the upper primary became a middle English school. On August 26, 1993, Prafulla Ghadei, then mass education minister, inaugurated the high school campus,’’ said Behera.

“According to a 1977 settlement, the school had more than 5.5 acres of land. But now a real estate developer is claiming to own 330 decimal of land in the front portion of the school.

“It could be because of the fraudulent ways of establishing ownership with handwritten revenue records. But if he owned the land for so long, why did he not come forward to claim the land before? Why is he declaring it after so many years?’’ asked another local resident, Jajati Keshari Sahu.

Local residents said they had been able to establish the school and elevate it to a high school after many appeals to the government.

The land shark also had his eye on a forest department beat house, which is on the school campus. But the forest department had moved court, which ruled in its favour. Bidyadhar Bhuyan, another local resident, said: “The school and mass education department should act like the forest department to get back the ownership of its land.’’

Local residents and school employees added that the school and mass education department authorities had been briefed about the current situation.

However, no communication had been made so far from the department’s end. The agitation by the villagers has also attracted the attention of the local administration. But the villagers are not happy with the role of the local police.

“The chief minister has asked the police to have helpdesks at each police station. But the local police, instead of listening to us, asked us to stop the fight and even used foul language. We will meet higher authorities of the Cuttack-Bhubaneswar police to complain to them about this,’’ said one villager.

Local councillor Sanjay Kumar Sethi said the real estate developer is claiming he had purchased the land from the owner in Gadakana. “We have already apprised the revenue and school and mass education departments of the situation,” Sethi added.

School and mass education minister Pratap Jena told The Telegraph that the department would look into the matter immediately.