Pattamundai: Rampant conversion of farmlands for urbanisation in alleged violation of norms has sent the alarm bells ringing for the farmers under this block and civic body limits in Kendrapara district. Land sharks are said to be complicit in such activities.
Reports said that over 1,000 hectare of fertile farmlands have shrunk under this municipality limits between 2018 to 2021. It is apprehended that if this trend continues then in the next two decades the area will be bereft of any land for cultivation. This will severely affect farming and will result in loss of livelihood for farmers. The demand for homestead land has increased so much that various vested interest groups did not even hesitate to sell off a part of Pokhariapada minor canal. The canal that originates from Pattamundai main canal has now become extinct with several houses coming up on it.
The Water Resources department has declared the canal dead. The land grabbing has picked up in the area after various government and private establishments opened their offices in the area and the market which was very small some 20 years back. The town are has been expanding with passage of time, locals said. The area also witnessed the influx of people from outside who started settling here and earned their livelihood by working in various offices and businesses.
As a result, land prices in Pattamundai civic body limits and on its outskirts have skyrocketed with passage of time. The land prices have gone up by several notches in these areas where a gunth of land is sold at Rs 15 lakh to Rs 30 lakh. It has become impossible for a small time official or person of lower middle class family to purchase land and build houses on it. The establishment of various offices and rise in commercial activities have led to pressure on land following which farmlands under Pattamundai civic body limits, the road connecting Rajnagar, the Pattamundai –Tatna road and from Pohala Square to Pattamundai Bypass Square were converted and sold off for house construction.
The farmlands on both sides of Balipatna, Chaudakulat and Nilakanthapur roads were also converted and sold off for house construction. The vested interest groups after grabbing several patches of land in Pattamundai town area and on its outskirts have now set their sight on the land in villages like Chandannagar and Kakharuni under the block. The land on both sides of the canal from Pokahariapada in the town and on Tatna road has been sold off while houses have come up on it.
Similarly, the land from MN High School to Baktharpur and Kakharuni bridge has been sold off. The land near the Pattamundai water resources office, Praharajpur, Beltala, Dakhinadia and the lands on both sides of Gobari river have been grabbed by mafia who are converting the lands. Vested interest groups have allegedly manipulated the ‘1930 settlement’ works and have grabbed high value government lands. The encroahcers have also not spared the Gobari river which has now become buried and is a national property. They have grabbed various parts of the river by claiming that they had taken lands on lease from former Zamindars and their descendants. Land sharks have also encroached upon various water bodies in the town and sold off as homestead land.
Parts of Gobari river, Pokahriapada minor canal and other water bodies have been grabbed. Locals have questioned the encroachment of the buried river. Notably, a 20-km stretch of the river from Pattamundai to Gandakia has been buried due to lack of timely renovation. Locals have demanded the state government and the district administration to stop the indiscriminate land grabbing in the area