CUTTACK: Amid allegations of irregularities in the conduct of Baliyatra this year, trouble seems to be mounting for the district administration and Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) over the violation of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) orders on the use of land for the fair.
Senior advocate Pradip Kumar Pattnaik, one of the petitioners, who moved the tribunal, has not only levelled the allegation but also is set to file a contempt case against the district and civic body with the NGT.
“The NGT, which has established the whole 426 acres of land reclaimed by the administration to be part of the floodplain zone, had allowed to hold Baliyatra in 34 acres of land with all due precautions for maintaining sanitation and hygiene on the floodplain of Mahanadi. But, the district administration and CMC violating the NGT order organised the fair on more than 150 acres of land while throwing sanitation and hygiene to the wind,” said Pattnaik.
Even after four days since the fair ended, heaps of garbage comprising hazardous polythene and plastic waste can be found lying unattended in front of CMC’s pavilion set up at the Baliyatra ground, which can be termed as gross negligence on the part of the civic body, Pattnaik added. Anticipating the danger of flooding, the tribunal had made it clear in its order that no concretisation of any sort will be allowed in the entire 426 acres of land.
But violating the order, CMC has constructed concrete platforms around the 74 trees existing on the floodplain by spending lakhs towards making sitting arrangements for people, the district administration had set up the Cuttack-in-Cuttack pavilion on about 100 acres of land, alleged Pattnaik. Neither the district administration nor the civic body had obtained any permission from the competent authority for holding the fair beyond the permissible 34 acres, he added.
“The administration which had changed the Kissam (status) of the floodplain for handing over it to IDCO is yet to revoke the same. I have filed a review petition in this connection,” said Pattnaik. Cuttack Collector Bhabani Shankar Chayani’s phone was not reachable, while efforts to elicit a response from CMC commissioner Nikhil Pavan Kalyan proved futile.