KENDRAPARA: Rare and valuable documents, including land records, journals, books and palm leaf are gathering dust at the 120-year-old tehsil office at Rajkanika block.
The office, built in 1900 by the King of Kanika Rajendra Narayan Bhanjadeo on two acre land, was meant to store land records and other documents. During the British era, large tracts of land in Kendrapara, Bhadrak, Cuttack and Balasore districts were owned by the King of Kanika.
After Independence, the Government abolished the estates of the King and acquired the tehsil office as per Odisha Estate Abolition Act, 1952. However, owing to negligence of officials concerned, the tehsil office is now lying in a dilapidated condition.
The building is considered a treasure house of the Rajkanika history but its present state is a pale shadow of its glorious past, said Subharansu Sutar of Rajkanika. A section of the tehsil ground has now turned into a grazing ground. The tehsil building is crumbling fast and time is running out to save it, said Kaliprasad Nayak, a retired teacher of Rajkanika.
Another lawyer Mrutyunjaya Samal said it is high time the Government renovated the building. He said any move to demolish it would be opposed by the locals. A few lawyers of the area are using a portion of the building as their office.
Tehsildar of Rajkanika DSS Joshi said the century-old building is not in good shape and the district administration has recently taken a decision to construct a new tehsil building at Rajkanika by demolishing the existing one.