Bid to wrest government land

BHUBANESWAR: A massive public uprising is building up in Jatni over alleged usurping of Government land, earmarked by the urban local body (ULB) for resettlement of the landless poor, by a private university allegedly in connivance with the local revenue administration. As thousands of residents plan to lay siege to Jatni Tahasil office shortly, the municipal council has sought urgent intervention of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to sort out the matter. Over 950 BPL families, who were to be rehabilitated in Ramachandrapur mouza under Jatni Tahasil, had been evicted from the Government land which the municipal council had identified for their settlement last year. The Jatni tahasildar reportedly erected a compound wall around the plot of land adjoining the Centurion University of Technology and Management (CUTM) fuelling anger among the locals. The land, they claim, is categorised gochar (grazing land) and its ‘kisam’ cannot be changed as per Government norms but the tahasildar has ‘managed’ it with ulterior motive. For its buildings and other infrastructure, the university has already acquired about 34 acre from Idco which cost the former just a little over ` 1 crore. Now its expansion plans have left the poor and the needy in the lurch.  In a memorandum to the Chief Minister, Chairperson of Jatni Municipal Council Sagram Keshari Routray submitted that since the ULB had proposed to rehabilitate the BPL families on the land, they were acquiring the land till it could be settled in their favour. However, the land was alienated in favour of the varsity for which the revenue official should ideally have sought a NoC from the urban local body under whose jurisdiction the area falls. But that was glossed over. Not only that, large tracts of ‘Jagannath land’ have been also encroached upon in the vicinity which triggered resentment among the locals, Routray said. The BPL families had been staying along the railway tracks for the last 50 years and were surveyed in 1998-99 for rehabilitation and resettlement. Since the Railway authorities had evicted them from their area, the local municipality had shifted them to Ramachandrapur mouza which consists of ‘anabadi’ and ‘gochar’ land. “We had also decided to rehabilitate the poor in the land under Rajiv Awas Yojana and call it Biju Patnaik Nagar if the land was ceded in our favour,” Routray said. The municipal council was ready to buy it from the Revenue Department but the move was not allowed, he added. Last year in February, over 10,000 people launched a strike in the town and forced closure of shops in support of the civic body’s initiative. They are planning yet another agitation on Friday.