ROURKELA: The construction of the residential building of the regional chief conservator of forests (RCCF) of Rourkela circle on Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) land has found itself in a controversy.
Even as construction work is underway, it has emerged the RSP has not yet issued sub-lease order for the said piece of 1.5 acres on a prime location.
Reliable sources informed the RCCF office had applied to the RSP to sub-lease 1.5 acre of vacant land parcel located between the residence of RSP director-in-charge and Rourkela House at Sector-19. As the sub-lease process was underway, the office of the Rourkela divisional forest officer (DFO) on December 12, 2024 floated an e-tender for construction of the RCCF residence at a cost of Rs 78.33 lakh with three months completion target. The fund was stated to be from the state plan. The bid documents opened on December 31 and work started from mid-February.
Well-placed sources said the sub-lease committee after approving the application in first week of March sent it for final approval of the government through the Revenue Department. The legal process, sources informed, is the Revenue department after final approval sends back the application to RSP with an instruction to charge a certain land premium. Half of the premium goes to the Revenue department and the rest is retained by the RSP. This is followed by issue of the sub-lease order in favour of the applicant. In this case, by the time construction started, the order was not issued.
The sub-lease committee is headed by RSP director-in-charge, in which Sundargarh collector, Rourkela ADM, two executive directors of RSP and general manager of the Regional Industries Centre (RIC) are members.
RCCF P Ramaswamy said as per the direction of RSP director-in-charge, the land was jointly identified in presence of SAIL authorities and demarcated. As fund was allotted in December and convening of meeting for land approval was getting delayed, work started in the second week of February with due discussion to avoid surrendering of fund.
The RCCF said land approval was received in the first week of March but the final proceeding is expected in a week.
A former RDA officer said in matters of government construction where land transfer issue lingers, the planning authority concerned uses discretion and approves building plan imposing certain conditions. In the said case, if the construction started without even conditional building plan, then it is violative of the norms.
Rourkela ADM and vice-chairman of RDA Ashutosh Kulkarni did not take calls, nor responded to text message over the issue.
General secretary of Rourkela Shramik Sangh (RSS) of INTUC Prashant Behera said the Town Services Department of RSP claimed there was no wrong doing. However, if work started without sub-lease order, then it has no known precedence and RSP owes an explanation, he added.