There was some amusing news about the IAS Association of Odisha having unlawfully grabbed school land in Bhubaneswar. Only a routine peep into the matter revealed the fact that by sensationalising ordinary issues, small news agencies acquire ability to armtwist public authorities and extract some survival benefits. The pioneering ‘slur initiative’ was taken by a web portal, which said the IAS Association has forcefully taken possession of one and a half acres of the playfield belonging to the Unit-6 Government Boys’ High School.
Incidentally, around 1964 when the State authorities were coaxing and cajoling Tom, Dick and Harry from all over to come and set up home or shop in Bhubaneswar so as to give the infant town some respectable look of habitation, this school was put up only to encourage habitation around the area and dispel nocturnal fear among the people.
The news guys have simply erred by not trying once to know exactly how and why the officers were interested to set up a transit home there. It should be clearly known to all that a school of that size and scale is not entitled to posses more than three acres of land at the most. As per the CBSC guidelines, two acres in any municipal location is just huge enough to run a big school beautifully. The Sainik School, Bhubaneswar was allotted nearly 300 acres or so by the Biju Patnaik Government in 1962.
The Congress Government in the late 1980s snatched away more than 50 acres to put up other State facilities, which was grossly unlawful and unethical. The trekking, horse-riding path and the natural forest delicately nurtured and maintained by the school were gone in a moment. There was no strong enough guy to protest or move courts.
The alumni association was formidably powerful, but they chose not to fight because a bigger purpose was perhaps to going to be served though every inch was being perfectly used by the authorities to shape young cadets into soldiers. Not a square foot of land was left unused. The Unit-6 high school was wrongly or casually allotted nearly 7.5 acres of land when no one cared to live in Bhubaneswar. The school uses hardly five acres, including a big swanky stadium-like playfield with gallery and pavilion.
Even if they keep hitting their heads against the wall for years on end, they cannot come up with any worthwhile project to use the vacant piece of land being abused by horrible locals. So, as is usual, nearly 2.5 acres or more of the land has been lying with mounting filth or debris or defecation stuff for more than half a century.
The local slum dwellers and antisocial elements reign supreme over the piece of land. If the IAS Association had come up there, at least the routine beautification work could have added value to the school environment. More importantly, records show that the land is still owned by the GA Department. Only in the 1989 settlement records, it is lightly mentioned under the remarks columns: ‘school and playground purpose’. But if until now this very purpose has not been fulfilled as per law, the unused land has to be taken away by the GA Department, which has not happened until now certainly due to pressure of work all around.
Very strangely, some make-believe alumni association and an equally flimsy parents’ association have put their foot down and moved law courts to keep the IAS Association warded off. Some lawyer members of the alumni association have made the BDA an opposite party knowing little that the BDA is neither the owner nor the interested party.
The omniscient lawyers have not touched the GA Department. Admittedly, the BDA committed a small mistake by trying to put up a boundary wall. But then, as per law, the GA Department can retrieve the unused or abused land and reallot it to any recognised body, be it Government or private.
The GA Department can force the school authorities to make declaration that the land is not serving any purpose. Further, an enquiry with the Mass Education Department too yielded nothing. No one there knows anything about land ownership or the manner of use of the same by the school.
While talking to the concerned Government authorities, it became clear that there was a proposal for a transit house, but except agreeing in principle to allot a piece of land, there was no other development in the matter. Even by this moment, there has been no order of allotment by the GA Department to any agency or entity. On the contrary, the Government has made it clear by an order that the IAS Association is not getting any school land only because the public needs to be kept composed to trust the Naveen Patnaik administration.
Until around 1985, Bhubaneswar, particularly the new capital region, used to be a lazy, little town with potholed and lamp-less roads. After sunset, most areas got engulfed by darkness and eerie silence.
On the north-south axis, the new township stretched between the Ravi Talkies area and Sahid Nagar with not more than fifty vision-worthy houses at the most; on the east-west direction, it spread between Badagada village and the OAUT with its staff quarters.
The Stewart School was in the forest area; and after school hours, no soul would dare venture to that location. The Sainik School’s new campus was a community by itself, far away from downtown Bhubaneswar. The sensation-seeking news about the IAS Association eying school the playfield land did manage to pull some grey skies down, which prompted equally unscrupulous print and electronic news outfits to carry forward the false, half-baked tale which appeared fancifully sensational because IAS officers are looked up or down by the common folks as the real rulers who rightly and invariably override the elected people’s representatives.
It is also true that some news reporters take a great deal of sadistic pleasure in defaming the top layer administrators because they call all critical shots by guiding most political pinheads who would otherwise cause public disaster on all fronts.
The IAS Association has long since lost interest in the unused and grossly-abused school playfield fit to be possessed by worthier entities or individuals! Stories media people carry must cover all aspects as half truths cause public distress.