Hearing a PIl, the Odisha High Court has issued a show-cause notice to Rourkela Development Authority (RDA) and land Allotment Committee (lAC) asking them to reply by July 3 on the alleged irregularities in allotment of 65 decimals of valued land at throw away price to a business unit.
Sources said protesting the lease allotment of a piece of land of 65 decimals at the Civil Township to Orbit Motors of Pawan Kumar Sahoo and Rama Chandra Sahoo of Panposh, Mohammad Sultan Khan of Sector-15 and Mansid Ekka of Jagda had filed a PIl in the High Court. The land was earlier used by the poor men for cultivation; later the administration had vacated the land to use it for public purpose. But it did not rehabilitate the ones who used to do farming on it.
However, instead of using the land for public purpose, the authorities allotted it to the business unit at a nominal sum of Rs 60,000 per decimal where as the land cost would be more than Rs 4 crore. It is to be mentioned here that as the land value in Civil Township area is at all time high, the lAC while allotting land for residential purpose a couple of years had gone for bidding and the highest bidding amount was Rs 13 lakh per decimal.
The public demands that the land deal be scrapped and the land be allotted either for a hospital, a school, a park or any other public utility.