The proposed prawn Gheris’ demolition drive in the Balikuda coast in Jagatsinghpur district slaunched on Wednesday was deferred till November 15 in the face of mounting stiff protests from the prawn pond owners and their dependents.
The administration took such a decision considering the request of the Gheri owners and local people. However, it warned those encroaching forestland for prawn culture to vacate the land during the period. Earlier on Tuesday, hundreds of prawn Gheri owners and prawn culture dependents from Kusapur, Anantapur, Marichipur, Naharana, Baramunduli and Rahana Panchayats under Balikuda block had staged a demonstration in front of the district Collector office demanding a halt to a Gheri demolition drive scheduled to start from August 18.
Reports said that as many as 500 acres of forest land has been identified in Mala and Marichapur revenue circles under Balikuda Tehsil to be under illegal occupation of prawn cultivators.
Basing on forest department instruction to make free the land from the encroachers, Balikuda Tehsildar had issued notices to the encroachers to demolish the prawn Gheries from the forest land before August 15 failing which the administration would demolish the Gheries from the locality.
The prawn Gheri growers association leader Prasanta Kumar Hati who is leading the agitation informed that responding to the Tehsildar's notice 228 Gheri owners had moved revenue court held in RI circles of Mala and Marichapur. Disposing of the cases, the Revenue Department had imposed Rs 3,000 fine per acre against the prawn growers who had occupied the forest land.
Ironically after a week, the district administration issued a notice to evacuate the land, said Hati. "We have invested lakhs of rupees for the prawn cultivation this year; it is impossible to vacate the land when the prawn breeding season is underway," Hati revealed.
Prawn grower Artabandhu Biswal said, "We have been cultivating prawn firming by excavating ponds in our own lands for years, while some forest land have been occupied. There is flaw in demarcation of forest land and we demand its correction."
Meanwhile, a five-member delegation of Gheri owners met the Additional District Magistrate, Jagatsinghpur, and submitted a memorandum, seeking an intervention