BHUBANESWAR: Almost three decades have passed but for hundreds of residents of BDA HIG Duplex Colony at Baramunda, getting the title for their housing property remains a tale of unrealised dreams.
Over 250 allottees, who had purchased the duplexes in the society way back in 1992, now named Pragyan Vihar, are still waiting for execution of their lease deeds. While some of the original buyers have already passed away, their families are now left in a lurch and uncertain about their rights to their property that were bought decades ago.
Sources said the BDA started developing the project on a 22 acre land of the GA department during 1990 as a core housing scheme. Though the buyers were issued allotment letters during handing over of the duplexes in the next two years towards 1992, sources said the lease deed between the buyers and the seller (BDA) could not be executed as nearly half of the area on which the project was taken up was forest land.
Some of the members of the housing society alleged that though an alternative patch of land has already been identified by the GA department for its handover to the Forest department as a compensatory measure, their plight remains unaddressed.
“After the allottees approached the Orissa High Court towards 2015, the court in its order dated June 18, 2019, directed the BDA to take measures within two months and execute the lease deeds after complying with all necessary formalities,” said one of the members of the residents’ association. He said six years have passed in between but the allottees are still awaiting compliance from the BDA.
The association members pointed out that more than 20 allottees have also passed away in the meantime without receiving their legal documents and their family members are now uncertain as to when they will get the lease deed of their property executed.
“This is the only project of BDA where the lease deeds have not been executed even after three decades of possession,” said another member of the association. He said, in the absence of any valid legal document of their property, residents have been facing numerous problems.
“Neither are we able to dispose of the property, nor being allowed by the bank to avail a loan by mortgaging it during emergencies. We have been running from pillar to post for decades but the government authorities appear to have turned a blind eye to our grievance,” an association member, who is in his 70s, said.
BDA vice-chairman N Thirumala Naik said, “As the project involves forest land, correspondence in the matter with relevant authorities including the Government of India is still continuing. Efforts are on to resolve the issue at the earliest.”