Bhubaneshwar, Nov. 18 -- The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation authorities have gone ahead with evicting the illegal settlers and bulldozing the illegal structures at Shantipalli slum cluster after the Orissa High Court dismissed the squatters' writ petition.
"It is true that the petitioners and their forefathers have been residing in Shantipalli Basti for several decades; however, their occupation of government land is unauthorized," the Court ruled in an order pronounced recently.
While ancestral occupation may evoke sympathy, it does not confer a legally enforceable right to perpetuate residence upon public land in defiance of a statutory redevelopment plan, the Single Bench of Justice Dr. Sanjeeb Panigrahi ruled.
Long and continuous ...