Joint eviction drive begins in Odisha capital

Reported by Santosh Jagdev
Bhubaneswar, Mar 10:

A joint team comprising of the officials of the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA), Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC), General Administration, East Coast Railway (ECoR) and Commissionerate Police launched eviction drive at Banafula slum under Laxmisagar police station in the Odisha capital on Monday to take possession of the encroached Railway land.

The demolition drive was conducted as per the requisition made by the BMC Commissioner on March 7 to facilitate the expansion of Bhubaneswar Railway Station.

“About 60-70 houses were demolished till this evening and the rest will be demolished tomorrow”, said Liasioning officer Subhransu Sekhar Mohanty.

He said the slum dwellers of the area who are covered under Rajiv Awas Yojana, will be rehabilitated at Patia as per interim measure.

A total of four excavators were engaged in the eviction drive which was supervised by Enforcement Officer-I of BDA Debaprasad Dash in the presence of Enforcement Consultant Pramod Kumar Patra and BMC assistant commissioners, Sumita Behera and Deepak Routray.

Six platoons of police forces were deployed to maintain law and order during the demolition drive.

Among others, Akshaya Mishra, ACP, Zone-IV, Tapan Pattnaik, ACP, Headquarters, Rajat Ray, IIC of Laxmisagar Police Station, Bharat Sahu, IIC of Mancheswar Police Station and IIC of Badagada, Atanu Kumar Rout were present at the site.