Over 10,000 encroachment cases filed by the Government against land encroachers has become a cause of concern for the Smart City authorities in the State capital.
While efforts are being made to make Bhubaneswar a Smart City, vast stretches of Government land here continue under encroachment.
Slum dwellers have been residing on encroached Government land for a long time. And the mafias are renting out spaces for building houses in the slums, thanks to the political support provided by the ruling BJD.
As per official data, over 10,000 cases have been registered against the encroachers so far. Out of these, highest 5,347 cases have been registered in the Jayadev Vihar area, which houses the State’s largest slum at Salia Sahi.
While 1,036 cases have been registered at laxmi Sagar, 557 are at BJB Nagar.
Besides, the Government has filed cases to take over the encroached land at locations including Rudrapur, Meherpalli, Pahal and Banguari situated in the outskirts of the city. Vast stretches of land in the heart of the city including Chandrasekharpur, Damana and Patia have also been encroached.
The land mafias have encroached the lands, which come under of the Department of General Administration (DoGA), the BDA and the State Housing Board and meant for various projects.
While the Government had provided six acre of land to the Odisha Khadi & Village Industries Board at Udyogpuri of the Pokhariput area, two acre of the land has been encroached by the mafia.
Over 400 acre of land has been encroached in the city where slums have come up. The slum dwellers have been provided facilities like electricity connection, water supply, etc. Even, they possess voter ID cards, Aadhaar cards and house numbers.
While the encroachment cases are pending in courts, it is not easy to evict the slum dwellers who are getting all the benefits from the Government.