Date:08/01/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/01/08/stories/2008010853570300.htm

Other States - Orissa

Regularise illegal buildings in Cuttack: Congress

Correspondent

CUTTACK: The city Congress on Monday staged a demonstration in front of the Cuttack Development Authority (CDA) demanding extension of the State Government’s scheme to regularise unauthorised buildings and structures with some deviations in the city. A similar scheme was recently announced for the State Capital by the Bhubaneswar Development Authority.

Led by the party’s city unit chief Suresh Mohapatra, hundreds of activities laid siege to the CDA office for more than three hours and held a protest meeting. Mr. Mohapatra later submitted a memorandum addressed to the Chief Minister to the CDA Vice-Chairman.

Mr. Mohapatra said the party had been demanding the same for the last five years, as the 1,000-year-old city had a number of unauthorised constructions. “For obvious reasons, people in the old city have not visualised the current development and therefore the constructions here now do not match the new guidelines formulated for urban areas,” Mr. Mohaptra said.

It would be discriminatory if the scheme approved by the government for Bhubaneswar was not extended to Cuttack, said city unit general secretary Sashi Bhusan Das. He said that the party would organise a padayatra later this week on the issue.

Bandh threat

“The party will also organise a ‘jana mancha’ to mobilise support for the extension of the scheme to Cuttack. And if the government fails act positively, we will be forced to launch mass agitation and call bandh,” party general secretary said.

It may be recalled here that the CDA had already identified over 6,000 unauthorised constructions.

Some 4,000 of the structures were enjoying court embargo, leaving little choice for the CDA to act.