Leasehold-to-freehold conversion of Odisha State Housing Board land delayed, allottees suffer
ROURKELA: The delay in conversion of leasehold land of Odisha State Housing Board (OSHB) projects at Rourkela into freehold property has left over 5,100 allottees in the lurch.
Nearly a year after the OSHB submitted the necessary documents, not much progress has been made in this regard. Sources said the OSHB was provided around 300 acres of land for setting up three housing projects at Chhend Colony and one at Basanti Colony. Accordingly, the oldest housing colony of Rourkela came up over 150 acre. Similarly, the Chhend Phase 1, 2 and 3 projects came up over 46 ac re, 94 acre and 12 acre respectively.
Official sources said in August 2023, the Revenue department had issued a notification allowing the conversion of leasehold land of OSHB projects into freehold land. Subsequently, in May 6 2024, the OSHB in two separate letters to the Rourkela tehsildar applied for conversion of 93.585 acre and 11.005 acre of land under Rourkela Town Unit-1 for Chhend Phase 2 project from leasehold to freehold.
Separately, the OSHB in March 28 2024 also wrote to the tehsildar for submission of information towards ‘Hal’ and ‘Sabik’ co-relation of plots over 150 acre of lease land at Basanti Colony to file review petition before the Sundargarh collector for mutation in favour of the board. Since then, the OSHB has sent multiple reminders to the tehsil office without much success.
While replying to a question in the state Assembly in September 2024, Housing and Urban Development (H&UD) Minister Krushna Chandra Mohapatra had informed that for the Basanti Colony and Chhend Phase 1 projects, there were issues with settlement of lease land and the matter was taken up with the Revenue department. The minister further said for four OSHB housing projects at Rourkela, lease deed documentation of 3,620 allottees had been completed. The process for lease deed documentation of 1,567 allottees was underway.
President of OSHB House and Land Owners’ Association Bimal Bisi said, ”The allottees are yet to have proper rights of their landed property. Due to this, they can neither sell or purchase the properties nor avail any loan.” He flayed the OSHB for not restoring certain powers of its sub-divisional office at Rourkela, forcing allottees including senior citizens to face difficulties in getting NOC, lease document or name transfer at Bhubaneswar.
When contacted, the newly-appointed tehsildar of Rourkela, Salima Majhi, said she would expedite the process.