Ending a two decade-long legal tussle, the Cuttack district administration on Monday recorded the encroached land that was under adverse possession of the Odisha Olympic Association (OOA) as Government land. Cuttack Sadar Tehsildar Abanikant Patnaik said a patch of land measuring 2.703 acres, adjacent to the Barabati Stadium, was under illegal possession of the OOA since 1985 and it is now recorded as Government land as per the orders passed by the Cuttack district Collector in 2003.
A sprawling marriage mandap, called Barabati Palace, and 23 shops standing on this controversial land have now come under the Government control although the district administration had taken possession of them in January this year following a Supreme Court order. As per the direction of the apex court, a committee headed by the Collector had taken over the management of the property and the income generated from it is now kept in an interest-earning account of the SBI main branch here. The Government had leased 20 acres of land for construction of the Barbati Stadium way back in 1949. But subsequently, the OOA took adverse possession of the adjacent land. When Asirbad Behera became the OOA secretary in 1986, he sub-leased the encroached land and developed the business establishments.