BHUBANESWAR: Opposition Congress on Saturday walked out of the Assembly criticising the State Government for its ‘inaction’ in recovering Government land under encroachment even as Revenue Minister Surya Narayan Patro assured the members that all land in illegal possession would be freed. Making a statement on the admissibility of an adjournment motion notice, the minister said valuable Government land at different places of the State, including Capital, Cuttack, Puri, Konark and Jajpur, are under illegal possession of individuals.Patro said the value of land under encroachment would be at least Rs 2,000 crore and a special cell has been set up at the Revenue Department to ensure return of such lands. Out of 9,454.801 acre of land under encroachment, the Government has so far retrieved 2,516.015 acre, he said. Rejecting the allegation that the Government had made no effort to free the encroached land, the minister said drafting of a new legislation is underway to make the Orissa Prevention of Land Encroachment (OPLE) Act, 1962, more foolproof to ensure smooth recovery of land. Besides, the State Government has also been referring land encroachment cases to the Crime Branch for investigation, he said.On the encroachment of land at Puri Sipasarubali area, the minister said the State Government will take possession of 1,307.02 acres out of the 2,823 acres recorded in the name of individuals after the 1977 settlement. Cases have been pending in the court of the consolidation officer relating to rest of the land, he said.Congress Chief Whip Prasad Harichandan, however, alleged that the Government had made no effort to recover land and said cases relating to land scandal have been referred to the Crime Branch only to cover up and give time to the encroachers to legalise their land in fraudulent manner.“Of the 60 land encroachment cases handed over to the Crime Branch, only one case has so far been finalised,” Harichandan said, adding that the CBI was doing excellent job in certain land scams. To justify his claim that the Government had made no effort to retrieve land, Harichandan pointed out how the Revenue Department ‘indulged in illegal activities of land conversion’.While there was no provision of issuing K-form for land conversion under the Orissa Land Reform Act, 1960, the Government had empowered tehsildars to undertake conversion activities through a simple notification. While the existing land law gives power to assistant land settlement or assistant consolidation officers to allow land conversion, the Government has illegally empowered the tehsildars to do the job, he said. Referring to the Sipasarubali land scam, Leader of the Opposition Bhupinder Singh alleged that 2,823 acre of valuable land near seashore in Puri was illegally taken over by some people and the Government had failed to retrieve them though three decades had passed. His party colleague Santosh Singh Saluja also criticised the Government for ‘not taking any action’ for recovering encroached land at various places in the State.
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