Land clearing by Bengal officials in Balasore opposed

On Saturday, Bhograi MLA Ananta Das along with Udaypur-Talasari marine IIC Hemanta Kumar Majhi and tehsildar Kamalakanta Panda visited the spot to take stock of the situation. 

BALASORE:  The border tension between Odisha and West Bengal has once again flared up after some workers from the neighbouring state cleared a patch of land near Sahabajipur village within Udaypur-Talasari marine police limits three days back. They used heavy machinery including JCBs to clear the land. No official of Odisha was informed about the work.

On Saturday, Bhograi MLA Ananta Das along with Udaypur-Talasari marine IIC Hemanta Kumar Majhi and tehsildar Kamalakanta Panda visited the spot to take stock of the situation. The MLA warned the officials from West Bengal to discontinue the work and produce documents of land ownership. “The officials from West Bengal have agreed to produce the map and relevant documents on Monday. The next course of action on the matter will be decided after we go through the documents,” he said. 

Bhograi MLA Ananta Das with officials at the
disputed spot | Express

Tehsildar Panda said he has already informed the senior officials of the matter. The map and documents produced by officials from West Bengal will be checked to ascertain the ownership of the land. “If any discrepancies are detected, they will not be allowed to carry out any work on the land,” he said. On Thursday, a few officials and workers from West Bengal arrived at a spot near the village and cleared a patch of land by cutting 50-60 trees. While they were engaged in the task, a few residents of Sahabajipur reached the spot and asked them to stop the work. However, they did not pay heed to the villagers and did not even show documents of ownership of the land. 

The villagers then brought the matter to the notice of Balasore Collector K Sudarshan Chakraborty. 
The Irrigation and Waterways department of West Bengal had erected a signboard that read ‘Digha Sea Beach Protection and Beautification Work’ near Udaypur beach within Bhograi block on July 13, 2018. 
The matter was brought to the notice of Odisha government, which held a meeting and informed its West Bengal counterpart about it. The district administration had pulled down the signboard on August 28, 2018.   

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