High Court issues notices to Govt
The Odisha High Court on Thursday issued notices to the State Government, the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) and the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) after admitting a PIl, which has alleged that a lot of leaseholders in the capital city are using their residential plots for commercial purposes.
Adjudicating the petition filed by RTI activist Purna Chandra Sahu of Talcher, a Division Bench of Chief Justice AK Goel and Justice AK Rath issued the notices to all the respondents named in the petition and asked them to file their counter-affidavits within two weeks.
The State Chief Secretary, the Director of Estates, the Secretary of the General Administration Department, the BDA Vice-Chairman and the BMC Commissioner have been named as respondents in the petition, informed the petitioner’s advocate Suryakant Sangneria.
Sangneria alleged that a number of residential plots in the whole of Bhubaneswar and particularly in the Nayapally area are now being used for commercial purposes. He said multi-storied buildings have come up at residential areas and have been rented to business houses for commercial purposes.
Seeking the HC’s intervention, the petitioner has prayed the court to direct the Government to either cancel the leases or convert the residential plots in commercial plots so that the Government would stand to benefit in getting better revenues.