Because revenue officials failed to enforce statutory safeguards, a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) said, hundreds of acres of agricultural and government land in Odisha were illegally converted, diverted, or encroached upon for commercial, residential, and educational purposes.
The report said nearly 504 acres of agricultural land in 24 tehsils were converted for non-agricultural use without complying with the procedures laid down in the Orissa Land Reforms (OLR) Act. Of this, about 250 acres were used for commercial projects, 132.8 acres for residential developments, and 53.6 acres for educational institutions. It said conversion of 30.3 acres was allowed without seeking the views of development authorities, and conversions of another 10.7 acres were sanctioned in six tehsils despite written objections from development authorities.
The audit report cited a case in which 17.8 acres allotted by the Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation of Odisha (IDCO) in 1981 in Bhubaneswar’s Chandaka Industrial Area for a cement manufacturing unit were found in the possession of an educational trust. In 12 tehsils, 22 private educational institutions were also found to have unauthorisedly occupied 210.76 acres of government land.
CAG also said government land allotted for industrial and IT purposes was being used by private educational institutions. It said IDCO rejected the company’s proposal to transfer the land to the trust and change its use but did not cancel the allotment for the violation.
The institution has not responded to the CAG findings. An encroachment case was initiated in 2011 and a joint verification report in 2018 claimed that the encroachment had been cleared. But a subsequent inspection by the divisional forest officer in 2019 found the institution still occupying the land and had constructed including an academic block and hostels.
CAG said the land remained under illegal occupation despite directions during forest-clearance proceedings to act against officials who had suppressed the violation.
