Indus Valley Times

By Sukant Kumar Mohanty

Bhubaneswar, July 18: The Odisha government has decided to adopt a “zero tolerance” approach to evict government encroached by influential people. On Wednesday, it said bulldozers will be engaged to demolish illegal constructions on government lands in the state.

Speaking to reporters in Sambalpur, revenue minister Suresh Pujari informed that during the previous BJD government used to evict poor people who had settled on small portions of government lands. Now, there would be action against the rich and other influential people who have occupied vast stretches of government lands and built illegal structures on them.

“We have not got many records till now. I have seen in the past years that structures of people in two to four decimals of land were razed. But the influential people always escaped action and remained touched due to their proximity to the power. There are many influential people and officials who have encroached government lands. The state government will surely evict these people,” said Pujari.

The minister further said that such people and officials have constructed high rise buildings and soon such structures will be razed by bulldozers.

Earlier, the Odisha government had also directed district collectors to take steps to remove illegal encroachment from government lands- both in urban and rural areas in the state.

On July 8, chief minister Mohan Charan Majhi had ordered revenue officials to release all the encroached government lands across the state.

Reports from Jharsuguda, Jajpur and Kendrapara said the district collectors have started taking actions against the encroachers and freed vast stretches of land.

In Jajpur and Kendrapara, illegal structures — two sophisticated restaurants cum guest houses — built by influential Biju Janata Dal (BJD) leaders have already been taken into possession by the district administrations.