The State Government has not shown any interest to retrieve possession of 490 acres of encroached land along the Puri-Konark marine drive since last 15 years. As far back as in 1997-98, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India in its report had mentioned about the encroachment of 520 acres of Government land along the marine drive under Nimapara tehsil.
Acting on the report, the Government had filed several cases to take possession of the land, but the cases are still pending in courts. Stating that these lands have been illegally transferred in the names of some individuals by tampering with the original land records, the CAG had informed the Government that failure in taking possession of the lands would mean a loss of nearly `500 crore to the State exchequer.
The CAG report had held the Revenue Divisional Commissioner, Puri district Collector and the Government Advocate responsible for their gross apathy in this regard. The Government, in its action-taken report in September 1998, had termed it as a mega land scam and asked the Puri Collector to move the higher court for recovery of the land.
While six cases pertaining to lands are sub-judice in the court of Additional Sub-Collector at Puri, it was later revealed in the course of investigation that out of the total encroached land, the ownership of 29.60 acres has been finalised in the name of one person. Not only this, the Sub-Registrar Office at Gop has also registered a sale deed of the land in the name of the same person at a cost of `65 lakh.
Taking note of the irregularity, the Government had later suspended the Additional Sub-Collector of Puri. Meanwhile, efforts are on to take possession of the remaining 490.78 acres of land by the encroachers, against whom the Government has filed cases, sources said.