CUTTACK: The Cuttack administration is in a fix over conducting Baliyatra this year after the National Green Tribunal (NGT) expert committee termed the reclamation of 426 acres of land on the Mahanadi riverbed illegal. The NGT panel has also recommended against the expansion of Baliyatra ground by 34 acres near Gadagadia ghat.
The district administration on August 20 held a preparatory meeting with officials of Cuttack Development Authority (CDA) and Cuttack Municipal Corporation(CMC) to organising Baliyatra. Anticipating that this year more people will visit the fair as it was not held for the past two years due to the Covid pandemic, the administration had planned to expand the festival area to 100 acres.
Accordingly, a blueprint was prepared for holding the festival on a 100-acre land, of which around 40 acres would have been kept reserved exclusively for the parking of vehicles. However, a seven-member expert committee which had conducted a field visit and reviewed the Mahanadi upstream of Jobra Barrage here on July 13 to ensure enforcement of applicable rules to prevent irreversible damage to the river’s floodplain and associated issues relating to ecology, hydrology, environment and bio-diversity, in its report sought direction to the State government not to undertake any activity on 426-acre land on the Mahanadi river bed and the banks.
The panel also urged the tribunal to ask the government to refrain from dumping any solid material (sand and/or solid waste), dredging of remaining islands in the pondage area and removing encroachments including unauthorised religious structures on the floodplain. However, Collector Bhabani Shankar Chayani said the report of the committee is not based on a unanimous opinion. One member of the committee has also given a note in favour of the government to NGT.
Now, NGT will have to examine the matter in light of the report of a five-member committee submitted earlier. Objections (counter report) to the report filed by the Water Resources department, the report of the seven-member committee which came later and the favourable note of the member has been submitted to NGT, Chayani said. “It is up to NGT to examine all the reports and pass orders. We are waiting for the decision/order of NGT for further action in the matter,” he added.