BHUBANESWAR: The state government has sought a clarification from the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) as well as Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) for realising security deposit from two projects, and allowing access to approach road on government land without consent from the General Administration (GA) department.
A letter to this effect was issued by the director of Estates to both the agencies on Friday. The letter pointed out that as per the decision of the 248th Development Plan and Building Permission (DP&BP) committee of BDA, the BMC approved a revised plan for HP Square project on realisation of Rs 63.51 lakh as security deposit for approach road over plot no 1233 in Baramunda mouza and another plan for Shuvam Midtown project on realisation of over Rs 2.46 crore as security deposit for using a strip of government land from plot no 527 in Bomikhal mouza for access to the project site. “The GA department has not accorded any permission in the matter,” the letter read.
Accordingly, both BDA vice-chairman and BMC commissioner were asked to submit a clarification in this regard and cite under what circumstances the DP&BP committee of BDA and BMC approved the building plan of the real estate projects, allowing access over the GA department’s land by way of collecting security deposit without the department’s permission.
The GA officials said the explanation is being sought on the basis of the clarification demanded by the Odisha Real Estate Regulatory Authority (ORERA) on the matter.
The move from the GA department assumes significance in wake of the DP&BP committee’s latest decision in which it has planned to approach the state government to frame a policy or come up with guidelines for providing access to the private land owners to approach roads developed on government land.
BDA sources said grievances are being received pertaining to cases where tehsildars are being requested to provide NOC for using government land as access road by the applicants to their projects. In many cases, the tehsildars concerned are unable to grant permission primarily due to absence of any specific policy or guidelines for the same.