Engineering College built on cremation ground

BHADRAK: Close on the heels of Puri Swargadwar land scam, a private engineering college in the district has been accused of encroaching upon a portion of a cremation land.It is alleged that the managing committee of Barapada School of Engineering and Technology (BSET) forcibly occupied nearly 5.12 acres of plot no. 2726 in Kusunanagar area and constructed its academic building, a hostel for girls and a cycle stand on the plot.Incidentally, the constructions were made in 2004 when Tourism, Culture and Co-operation Minister Prafulla Samal was  chairman of the college managing  committee. This is despite the Industrial Development Corporation providing nearly 40 acres to the college. Besides, the college authorities have also built a market complex on a portion of the illegally acquired land brushing aside stiff opposition from the people of Barapada panchayat.Meanwhile, the locals urged the district administration to free the land of the encroachment as it was used for funeral rites by at least 12 villages. District Congress Committee president Badrinarayan Dhal said Samal who was the chairperson for nearly two decades had misused his power to encroach on the public land. He further alleged that the managing committee also mortgaged the land for a loan for construction.  The present chairman and Samal’s son Prayaskanti Samal said the land was acquired without his father’s knowledge. “We came to know about it when the Revenue Department served a notice in 2007 stating that the land was acquired illegally. Thereafter, we requested that the land be leased out to the institution and accordingly deposited the requisite fees,” he said. Prayaskanti clarified that no loan had been obtained against the land and the academic building and the hostel were built with the funds of the institution.