Rourkela: One of the most controversial land deals in the city seems to have reached a logical conclusion. The questionable land has finally gone back to its logical owner, the Odisha government. Only a couple of years back, the land measuring 60 decimals had become the cynosure of all eyes, the way it had been given to a private party flouting all norms. The irregularity of the deal had been highlighted by BJP spokesperson Dhiren Senapaty. He had alleged that the piece of land, which was meant for the construction of the IDCO Tower, had been given away to a private party at a very nominal price in comparison to the existing rates at the Civil Township locality, one of the primary housing locations in the city. “At least IDCO now can reclaim the land and construct a tower. This issue was raised by me. I have the information that the land has gone back to the government following the intervention of the Orissa High Court,” Senapaty said Sunday. It was Senapaty who had raised the issue before the media about the illegality of the deal. In 2014 IDCO was given one acre of land for construction of the tower.
However, in 2015 the government demanded money for the land from IDCO. The land was given to IDCO with certain conditions. One of them was that 20% of the built-up area would be given to the Odisha government to house different offices. However, no proper deed was signed regarding the transfer of the land. Out of the blue, one private business house approached the state Tourism department to construct a hotel keeping in mind the upcoming Hockey World Cup in 2023. The department informed IDCO that it had no objection to the project. Under the industrial promotion act, the price of the land was fixed at Rs 1lakh per decimal for 60 decimals of land.
However, the existing rate then was Rs 22 lakh per decimal. “I came to know about this wrongdoing from my sources and had invited all the media for that press conference in which I blew the cover from the deal,” said Senapaty. A PIL was also filed at the Orissa High Court by Ramachandra Kundu. Hearing all sides the high court directed the revenue secretary to initiate an inquiry in 2022.
In May of the same year, the revenue secretary after scrutinising all documents found that the land was grossly undervalued and everything mentioned in the PIL was valid. Then he instructed the LAC here to take the right decision. However, it got delayed, said Senapaty. “Finally a few days back the revenue secretary wrote to the Collector, who is also the chairman of the LAC, to take action within three weeks. Following this the LAC has requested the government to take back the land,” said a lawyer who spoke on condition of anonymity.
