News: Odisha decides to regularise encroachment of govt land worth ₹4,000 cr

The occupation of 1893 acres of government land by 1274 high schools, 51 government colleges and 644 aided colleges would be regularised.

Updated on Nov 24, 2021 01:47 AM IST

By Debabrata Mohanty

In a major sop to around 2,000 high schools and colleges, the Odisha cabinet on Tuesday decided to regularise encroachment of all such institutions on government lands worth ₹4,000 crore.

The Cabinet which met on Tuesday decided that the occupation of 1893 acres of government land by 1,274 high schools, 51 government colleges and 644 aided colleges would be regularised. The total value of the land would be ₹4,000 crore.

Due to the inability of such institutions to pay the dues like premium, incidental charges, annual ground rent, cess, encroachment fees with penalty, interest, the land could not be recorded in the name of institutions.

The Cabinet decided all land, irrespective of the extent of area, under the occupation of standalone government degree colleges (including autonomous and non-autonomous government colleges) and standalone government higher secondary schools will be recorded in the name of the higher education department and school and mass education department respectively.

In the case of aided degree colleges having autonomous status and non-autonomous aided degree colleges and aided higher secondary schools, land up to 10 acres in urban areas and 15 acres in rural areas would be recorded in the name of the higher education department and school and mass education department respectively.

The land to be settled with the educational institutions should be leasable, non-forest, not in DLC list, un-objectionable, free from encroachment by anyone other than the said educational institutions, free from any encumbrances and should not be having any mineral reserve.

On settlement of such land, all previous encroachment cases booked by revenue authorities would be dropped and a token amount of Re 1 per acre per year towards assessment and penalty at Rs10 per acre per year may be charged. Interest on the arrear amount would be waived out. The cut-off date for consideration of occupation of government land by an institution would be January 1, 2020.