Odisha villagers served cess on land, gobbled up by sea

The sea-erosion-hit villagers are now burdened with litigation costs with the administration slapping cases under OPDR Act

For the hapless victims of sea-erosion in Kendrapara district it is a cruel joke with the revenue administration serving notice to them for collecting cess against the land already gobbled by smashing sea waves and registering cases against those land-losers.

The sea-erosion-hit villagers are now burdened with litigation costs with the administration slapping cases under Orissa Public Demand Recovery (OPDR) Act for non-payment of cess arrears, villagers claimed.

Though the sea has eaten up land territory in the villages, land revenue records in Gupti revenue circle in Rajnagar tehsil are yet to be redrawn .

In Satabhaya gram panchayat, the worst-hit by sea erosion, the sea has gobbled up 4,300 acres of land (private and government), land settlement was last conducted for Satabhaya gram panchayat in 1989.

Since then no fresh survey has been done to measure the land still intact. Nearly 2,100 acre of government land and 300 acre private owned land remains intact unharmed by seawaves.

"We are bound by revenue law. Local administration cannot waive off land cess even though we are aware that the sea has dispossessed people of their ancestral land. Waiving off tax needs sanction from the state government", Tehsildar Rajnagar Tehsil, Khirod Kumar Behera, said.

"It's quite unrealistic asking the local dwellers to pay cess. However, we are duty-bound to serve notices to the 'default' landowners. Cases under Orissa Public Demand Recovery (OPDR) act have also been registered against cess defaulters", officials said.

"Serving notices and instating OPDR provisions is a legal formality. We are sensitive towards people's plight. We are yet to initiate coercive action", the Tehsildar said.

Revenue Inspector, Gupti Revenue Circle, Rashmi Ranjan Mallik said, "At periodic intervals, the revenue circle is serving notices for recovery of land-cess arrears from land-owners. A section of people are in fact paying cess though they have lost their plots to the advancing sea."

"I lost my agriculture land to sea in 1999. However I am being asked to pay cess by government agencies. It's a cruel joke upon the people", said a native of Satabhaya village, Sudarshan Rout.

The sea has been menacingly crawling towards human habitation in this part of the state. Hamlets, places of human habitation and agriculture land are now under sea's lap while the local revenue records are yet to make map alteration on the changing topography of the far-flung pockets like Satabhaya, Gobindapur, Rabindrapalli, and Kanhupur.

"To provide relief to the people from land cess burden, we are sending a proposal to the Revenue Divisional Commission (central) and Member, Board of Revenue for cess remission. The district administration is devoid of power to waive off cess according to land revenue law.

The local Tehsildar has been directed to comply a comprehensive report to expedite the cess-remission," an official said.