Four days after restoring 70 acres of Government land from illegal possession of former State Chief Secretary Rabinarayan Das and his brothers in Jajpur district, the Odisha land Record and Settlement Commissioner court here on Friday ordered restoration of another 88 acres of Government land from the same occupants.
Disposing of a batch of revision petitions filed by the Jajpur Collector and the Danagadi Tehsildar, the Commissioner court of AK Tarenia ordered restoration of the land and to record them as ‘unoccupied forest’ land under Salijanga village.
All the revision petitions were filed before the Member, Board of Revenue last year and the Member Ashok Kumar Tripathy had ordered the Commissioner to decide the cases on a priority basis.
The Commissioner’s court has also suggested to the Government to initiate a Crime Branch probe into the matter as to how these cases were not decided under the Odisha Prevention of land Encroachment Act and private persons were allowed to occupy valuable government land for so long.
The contentious patch of 158 acres of Government land was recorded in the names of Bidubhusan Das, Chandi Charan Das and Rabinarayan Das, who are sons of late Durga Charan Das by the Settlement personnel during Hal Settlement operation in 1983 on the basis of handwritten Record-of-Rights (RoR).
The revision petitions alleged that the retired IAS officer and his brothers sold at least 70 acres of the suit property at different points of time to different persons through registered sale deeds.
Although the retired top bureaucrat could not be contacted, reports reaching here said the then Raja of Sukinda had apparently leased the land to Das’ mother Nirmala Devi in 1946 after taking the requisite fees and in 1971 settlement, the land was recorded in the name of Nirmala Devi.
However, after the death of Nirmala Devi, the land was recorded in the names of her sons, including Rabinarayan Das in 1983.
Sources said Das and his brothers are contemplating to challenge the orders of the Commissioner court in appropriate forums.