Seeing Bhubaneswar’s further growth imminent in view of its top Smart City enlistment, miscreants have started encroaching the Government land and creating slums at different places in and around the city.
Even such constructions have come up in areas where the State Government has put up signboards with warnings, “This is Odisha Government’s land; encroachment is punishable.”
Such encroachments are rampant in the areas like the Sainik School and the Mancheswar Railway Coach Repairing Factory. Miscreants have been constructing brick and mortar houses extensively in these areas.
Even as the Government has declared the area adjacent to the boundary wall of the Sainik School as the site for dumping yard, illegal construction work is going on broad daylight.
Though there are 426 slums in the city as per the Government record, the actual number has gone beyond 500.
After constructing houses illegally, encroachers call the habitation a city slum and then try to have electricity and water connections with help of local political leaders.
While Acharya Vihar leads the list, Bapuji Nagar, Ganga Nagar, Baramunda, Ghatikia, Chandrasekharpur and Patia areas are also not far behind as far as such encroachments are concerned.
The State Government has filed more than 10,000 litigations to retrieve the encroached land, said sources. The Government too spends huge amounts from the State exchequer to fight these cases. However, the encroachers don’t spend a single pie from their pocket as they earn a good amount of money by renting out a part or full of the illegally constructed houses.
Expressing deep concern over Government apathy over such encroachments, members of civil societies said if this trend continues, the Government will not only lose precious land but also face problems in its process to make Bhubaneswar a smart city.