Post News Network
Cuttack, Jan 24: The Cuttack district administration for the second time in the last two months Saturday took charge of Barabati Palace (Kalyan Mandap) and as many as 23 shops built on government land adjacent to the Barabati Stadium that was allegedly encroached upon by the Orissa Olympic Association (OOA), according to Cuttack ADM Laxmidhar Mohanty.
This follows a Supreme Court order issued Thursday for the constitution of a committee comprising the Cuttack collector and two ADMs of Cuttack district to take charge of the Kalyan Mandap and the 23 shops that had come up on the encroached land.
The committee is to function under the revenue secretary, the court directed. It also ordered an audit of the OOA by the accountant general (AG), Orissa. following an appeal in the apex court by the OOA, the organisation got relief December 11, 2014, with a Supreme Court bench comprising Justice Dipak Misra and Justice UU Lalit granting a stay on the crime branch probe that the Orissa High Court had ordered into the dispute. The apex court had issued a notice returnable within six weeks to the state government and said in its interim order, “There shall be stay of operation of the impugned order till the next date of hearing.”
Mohanty said that from now on payments towards booking the Barabati Palace will be received only through cheques or bank drafts.
Earlier, Cuttack ADMs — Mohanty and Ajit Kumar Palit — and the tehsildar Cuttack (Sadar) arrived at Barabati Stadium afternoon and took charge of the property.
