Bolangir: After a pause of six days, the administration Friday flattened two houses of land shark Timan Kumbhar using an earth moving machine at Larkipali in the district. Earlier, three other buildings of the mafia were bulldozed.
The three-storied building and an adjacent two-storied building built on an encroached land could not be razed earlier due to dearth of machine.
Timan used to get a heavy profit by giving these houses on rent at a high price. The two-storied house was named ‘Fashin Park’.
Three platoons of police forces were deployed at the site of demolition to maintain law and order. Civic body officer Arati Bahidar, Puintala tehsildar Satyanarayan Meher, who is also the magistrate-in-charge, Sadar sub-divisional police officer (SDPO) Narayan Nayak and Town police station inspector-in-charge Prashant Patnaik were present at the site. The demolition drive took around two hours.
Hundreds of people of the area crowded the place adjacent to the compound wall of a farm of Krishi Vigyan Kendra to see the destruction of Timan-empire.
The drive could not resume in the afternoon due to the absence of power department officials to disconnect power supply to other buildings of Timan. The drive would resume Saturday morning, said official sources.
The administration was now planning to destroy another building of Timan at Larkipali. It also targets one more house of the miscreant built on a public road in the area.
Official sources said razing these two structures may take time as the authorities need to be cautious to ensure that other buildings in the nearby areas do not get affected due to the demolition drive. As these two buildings are situated in a crowded area, safety of the residents is the top priority, officials pointed out.
It is expected that all the illegal buildings of the land mafia would be flattened within a day or two, official sources added.
PNN
