Bhubaneswar: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has flagged serious lapses in the management of land across Odisha, highlighting large-scale non-utilisation of plots allotted for industrial and allied purposes along with unauthorised occupation and diversion of government, agricultural and forest land.
The audit report, tabled in the Odisha Legislative Assembly, highlighted that structural monitoring gaps and poorly drafted lease agreements have allowed vast stretches of public land to remain idle or be misused without accountability. In eight sampled districts, 12,393.651 acres of land allotted between 1981 and 2021 for setting up industries and related activities remained unused for their intended purposes, while another 252.692 acres were diverted for unauthorised purposes.
A deeper dive into state land acquisition revealed an even starker failure:
>> Of 7,102.062 acres of private land acquired by the Revenue and Disaster Management (RDM) Department between 1983 and 2018 for industrial use, a staggering 7,035.471 acres or 99 per cent remained unutilised as of late 2024 despite the passage of statutory deadlines. This included 1,958.145 acres that Idco itself had not yet allotted.
>> A total of 6,163.727 acres were given to Idco and the rest to two other entities.
>> The audit blamed these failures on severe regulatory oversight.
Under the Odisha Government Land Settlement (OGLS) Act of 1983 and the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (RFCTLARR) Act of 2013, leased or acquired land must be utilised within three and five years, respectively. However, the absence of effective monitoring mechanisms and the lack of specific utilisation timelines in lease deeds executed between district collectors and allottees made it difficult for authorities to enforce timely use or resume unused parcels. Compounding the problem, the Revenue and Disaster Management Department, responsible for ensuring end-use compliance, maintained no comprehensive database of acquired or allotted land, and neither Idco nor the collectors undertook systematic surveys to assess utilisation status.
The CAG also uncovered widespread illegal encroachment and non-compliance with land-use conversion rules across local tehsils. State regulations under the Odisha RFCTLARR Rules of 2016 mandate the creation of village-wise land banks to promote productive use of government land and prevent land grabbing. Because these land banks were never formed, 668.893 acres of government land valued at ₹597.87 crore fell under unauthorised occupation in the audited zones, including 179.802 acres of forest land occupied by industrial entities and private educational institutions.
In one instance, 17.8 acres allotted by Idco in 1981 in Bhubaneswar’s Chandaka Industrial Area for a cement unit were found in the possession of an educational trust. Idco had rejected a transfer proposal but did not cancel the original allotment. Across 12 tehsils, 22 private educational institutions were found occupying 210.76 acres of government land without authorisation.
Agricultural land was also diverted on a significant scale. Revenue officials permitted the conversion of nearly 504 acres of agricultural land for non-agricultural developments, such as commercial projects, housing schemes, religious structures, and educational campuses, without strictly following the Orissa Land Reforms Act or consulting local development authorities.
In eight tehsils, 21.882 acres within development authority areas were sold after being divided into 321 sub-plots without the required permissions under the Odisha Development Authorities Act of 1982. Another 10.085 acres in two tehsils were converted to homestead category despite the absence of genuine approach roads.
Environmental safeguards were similarly bypassed across multiple jurisdictions. The audit identified 568.876 acres of forest land in six tehsils diverted for non-forest activities without central approval under forest conservation laws. In Puri and Khordha districts, 41.65 acres within protected Eco-Sensitive Zones (ESZs) were exploited for non-permitted activities, while 13.65 acres inside Balukhand Wildlife Sanctuary were illegally carved into 156 sub-plots and sold in clear violation of Wildlife Protection Act.
The audit observed that mechanisms for regular progress reporting on land utilisation, systematic resumption of unused parcels, and detection of unauthorised conversions were simply not in place.
To restore order to the state’s real estate inventory, the supreme audit institution recommended immediate corrective action. It urged the Odisha government to mandate strict compliance with utilisation timelines, establish mechanisms to automatically resume dormant land, and build the long-overdue village-wise land banks. Additionally, the CAG advised enforcing rigorous checks before authorising agricultural land conversions and executing prompt eviction proceedings against all unauthorised encroachments on state and forest land.