JAGATSINGHPUR: Despite a status-quo order by the Orissa High Court (HC), the district administration has reportedly started demarcation work for the proposed multipurpose indoor hall on the disputed land of SVM Autonomous College since last two days.
The college with a student strength of 6,000 has 36-acre land under its possession, of which more than 10 acre was acquired government land under the college control since the last 60 years. This acquired land was used for plantation under Urban Plantation Scheme by the Forest department. Though the governing body of the college had decided for expansion of the college in the same space and submitted proposal to the HE department, the district administration did not pay heed and felled 500 trees to acquire the land for constructing the MPH. The officials also demolished the boundary wall of the college in the process.
Last week, the HC had directed the State government and the district administration to maintain status-quo towards construction of the hall by acquiring the encroached land of the college. The order had been issued after president of the college governing body Kamala Prasad Mohapatra had filed writ petition in this regard on April 11. Mohapatra had urged to stop illegal acquisition of land and felling of trees, while also appealing to transfer the acquired land to the Higher Education department for permanent use of the college.
“This is a blatant violation of the HC order. I have consulted my advocate to file contempt of court for legal action against errant officials,” Mohapatra said. Jagatsinghpur tehsildar Anjali Tarai was not available to give any clarification.