Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi on Monday directed District Magistrates for expeditious removal of illegal encroachment from government lands across Odisha.
The directive is for both urban and rural areas.
The CM said that such forced occupation of government lands hampered development as these are meant of public welfare works and should be removed immediately. The district collectors have also been instructed to protect government land through suitable fencing and conspicuously displayed board once an encroachment is removed.
Earlier in a letter to all collectors, additional chief secretary, Revenue and Disaster Management department, Satyabrata Sahu had asked them to make a realistic survey of rural and urban encroachments and remove them as per extant rules. He had also raised concern on large-scale encroachment of government land in both urban and rural areas at a recent high-level meeting. “One of our primary works is optimum management of land resources and allocation of adequate land for developmental purposes and different sectors of the economy,” he pointed out.
He stated that it not only hampered smooth allocation of land for developmental purpose but also the opportunity cost of encroached government land remained unrealised in such cases. He also mentioned about the challenge of concomitant litigation arising out of illegal encroachment.
The collectors were asked to communicate immediately in case of inadequacy of funds for fencing to protect public land from encroachment. They were also instructed to submit an action taken report to the department every fortnight.
