SAMBALPUR: In a bid to reclaim land for new development projects, the Sambalpur University has started work on identifying and demarcating encroachments.
The university has Record of Rights (RoR) over 670 acres of land most of which, has been encroached upon by people for construction of buildings and even cultivation. There are three kinds of land including Government land, Patta land and land belonging to the university.
While the university has constructed most of the buildings on the existing campus, authorities concerned have recently initiated process to transfer the Government land in the university name. However, a large area belonging to the university has been encroached by outsiders who have constructed buildings. Though the university authorities asked the illegal dwellers several times to vacate the land, they have not heeded.
The university authorities raised the issue with the State Government and a meeting in this regard was held at Bhubaneswar.
Subsequently, the process to identify the land started and a comprehensive report will be prepared after the land identification process is completed. The report will be submitted to the Government following which, steps would be taken to evict encroachers from the university.
A senior official of the university, SP Rout said the Collector is monitoring the issue. An assistant engineer has been entrusted with the responsibility to give report to the district administration in phases after which, a final comprehensive report will be compiled and forwarded to the State Government.
Assistant Engineer of the university, Santosh Mohanty said though initial reports have already been submitted, the encroachment identification process is still underway and so far nearly 34 acres have been found to be encroached.