The joint teams of the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA), the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the General Administration (GA) Departments with the help of the Commissionerate Police conducted one of the biggest demolition drives in the city on Monday.
Official sources said the agencies demolished illegal structures in 30 acres of land encroached by locals near the Kanya Ashram at Patia under Chandrasekharpur Mouza.
BDA liaison Officer Subhransu Sekhar Mohanty said the Special Secretary of Revenue and Secretary GA Department had ordered demolition of around 250 pucca, asbestos, thatched roof, tin sheeted houses in the Chandrasekharpur area. The BDA had tried several times to demolish the encroachments, but could not carry out the eviction drive due to stiff opposition by the locals, said a BDA official.
The demolition drive was supervised by BDA Enforcement Officer-I Debaprasad Dash and BMC Deputy Secretary Subhransu Mishra. Seven excavators were engaged in the eviction drive involving 40 squads. To maintain law and order during the drive, the Commissionerate police deployed 17 platoons of force, two additional DCPs, two ACPs and eight IICs at the site.