Additional Chief Secretary of Revenue and Disaster Management Taradatt has asked the Puri district Collector to file an action-taken report (ATR) within 10 days on the 400 acres of prime Government land worth Rs500 crore illegally transferred by land mafias.
It was alleged by Beach Protection Council president Jagannath Bastia that the entire 207 acres of land of the sweet water zone waterworks located at Baliapanda mouza close to the sea had been grabbed by powerful persons. The area was notified as a no-construction and habitation zone by the Government in 2000 as the waterworks functions from this reserved area.
But land mafias with the help of some corrupt revenue officials had transferred the land to hundreds of persons. Besides, they too grabbed another 200 acres Government land at Goudabadasahi and loknath Ghat mouzas located in close proximity to the beach.
It is learnt that the land mafias found a way to avoid the government action. Instead of selling by registered sale deeds, they were executing agreements with the buyers. The District Sub-Registrar of land in his report to the Collector stated that over 300 such agreements to sell documents were registered at his office.
local Revenue Inspector Basant Mohanty stated in his report that 17 hotels and two multistoried apartments were under construction besides large-scale other constructions mushrooming over the land.
Strangely, the tehsildar had taken little action against the ongoing illegal grabbing of Government land even though he was aware of the status of the land and illegal developments therein.