Bhubaneswar, April 2: Expansion of the road from Vani Vihar to Master Canteen Square has hit a hurdle in the form of a temple, about 100 metres from the Master Canteen circle. Apart from the expansion work, the circle’s beautification is also facing problems because of it.

Public works department, the executing agency of the road expansion project, says the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) should remove or relocate the temple from the road as the structure comes the way of the master plan. While BMC is entitled to remove any blockade from a road under Rule No. 408 of the Odisha Municipal Corporation Act, BDA is also entitled to act on any unauthorised structure blocking development, following the Odisha Development Authority Act.

Piyush Ranjan Rout, an urban management practitioner, feels that planning for urban development suffers mainly because there is no coordination between different agencies managing the city affairs. Moreover, encroachments are never taken care of in their nascent stage.

“States such as Gujarat have shown exemplary action in removing religious structures from roads under Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation limits following a high court order. A 2009 Supreme Court ruling has empowered the administration to remove or relocate any religious structure blocking development work,” he said.

“This is not the job of BMC alone, but of the BDA and general administration department as well. A discussion was held at the city management group meeting and we are on our way to find a solution to the issue as religious sentiments are attached to it,” said deputy municipal commissioner Krushna Prasad Pati.

Sources in the revenue department, however, said unless the structure was historic or had archaeological value, it could be removed. The general administration department should have taken steps to file caveat earlier.

Director (estates) of the general administration department, Pradeep Kumar Rath, said: “I will ask the revenue official concerned to file a report and after studying that, the estate officer will file a case under Odisha Prevention of Land Encroachment Act, 1972. As the Assembly session is on, we will start the process only when the session is over.”

On the dilly-dallying attitude of the authorities concerned, another senior government official, on condition of anonymity, said: “As government officials, we should take a neutral action and not take sides with any religious section. But some senior bureaucrats have been asking us to stall the relocation or removal of the temple from the Master Canteen area for the time being.”

“It is strange that authorities are worried about removing religious structures even when they are blocking the development work. But they never think twice before felling a tree. On the stretch between Sishu Bhavan Square and Vani Vihar, the authorities must have felled more than 1,500 trees, though the number is 1,329 on record,” said environmentalist Bijay Mishra.

In the past, many illegal religious structures such as the one near City Women’s College and Sastri Nagar were removed for road expansion work. Last year, a religious structure coming up illegally inside Capital Hospital was removed.