Representative image of land.
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Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government has asked all district collectors to identify encroachments on government land in both rural and urban areas and remove encroachments as per extant rules expeditiously.
Additional chief secretary (ACS), Revenue and Disaster Management department, Satyabrata Sahu has written a letter to all collectors in this direction on Saturday.
Sahu wrote the letter after serious concerns were raised about large-scale encroachments of government land at a high-level meeting.
He mentioned that one of the primary work of officers is optimum management of land resources and allocation of adequate land to developmental purposes in different sectors of the economy.
However, due to encroachment of government land in both urban and rural areas, at times, smooth allocation of land for developmental purposes is impaired, the additional chief secretary said.
"Moreover, the opportunity cost of encroached government land is unrealized in such cases. Also, the concomitant litigation arising out of illegal encroachment remains a challenge to all of us," Sahu told the collectors.
Keeping in this view, he has asked the collectors to make a realistic survey of rural and urban encroachments and remove encroachments as per extant rules.
Consequent upon removal of such encroachments, they have been further asked to protect such government land by suitable fence and conspicuously displayed board by utilizing the funds received for the same purpose.
The collectors have been instructed to submit an action taken report to the department every fortnight.