The illegal structure at Jayadev Vihar being brought down on Monday. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, March 3: The enforcement wing of the development authority today started demolishing a multi-storey building near the convention centre of a leading hotel at Jayadev Vihar.

While the Bhubaneswar Development Authority had accorded permission to construct ground and first floors to the plot owner, the enforcement officials detected three extra floors constructed way back in 2009. On the other hand, though the building plan was approved for a residential building, a 12-room guest house was operating from the premises.

After a case of building plan violation was registered under the Odisha Development Authority (ODA) Act, 1982, against the landowner in 2010, a demolition order was issued, but the file was never acted upon.

It was taken up recently as the authority has decided to carry out the task in a missionary zeal to control the illegal constructions across the city and send a strong message through its action.

Enforcement officer Debaprasad Dash said: “As the building was used as a guest house, we came with a public address system on February 26 and announced that we are going to demolish the structure on February 28. But, due to festivities and holidays, deployment of police force was not possible and we had to start it today.”

Besides, some of the contractors, who had supplied equipment and vehicles to assist the squad, had left the scene. With a lone excavator and the manual work force, the squad demolished the front portion of the building with difficulty.

As the police force reached late, the demolition work started at 1pm. A platoon of police, an assistant commissioner of police and the inspector in charge of the local police station accompanied the squad. Ten persons from the Odisha State Striking Force were also deployed at the site.

Sources said that while Jayanti Sahu is the owner of the land, the guest house was constructed by her husband Ramachandra Sahu in 2008 after taking the land from his wife on a 10-year lease.

The guest house owner said: “In 2009, I received only one letter from the development authority. After that no communication was made to me. I got the demolition order on February 26 around 3pm, and at 5pm, the squad announced its plan through a loudspeaker. However, they did nothing on February 28. I allowed a marriage ceremony to function in the building as they had booked the venue much in advance.”

A senior official, however, said many house owners in the city were not paying any heed to notices sent by the development authority and even did not care to apply under various amnesty schemes, but at the last moment took a plea of ignorance.