On January 16, the Orissa High Court issued an order stalling the payment of salaries to District Collector and Magistrate of Angul and two other senior district administration employees until compensation is paid to the residents whose land was acquired in 1961.

Adjudging a case of Pramod Kumar Pradhan and ors Vs Principal Secretary, Water Resources Department, and others, the division bench of Justices Dr. Bidyut Ranjan Sarangi and Biraja Prasanna Satapathy passed the said order while observing that "only on payment of compensation, if any application is filed that the petitioners have been paid their compensation, then release of salary of the concerned officers shall be considered by this Court."

In addition to Angul Collector, the salary of Land Acquisition Officer, Angul, and Chief Development Officer-cum-Executive Officer, Zilla Parishad, Angul have also been withheld.

The court took a serious view of the issue, considering the petitioners' misery, whose lands were acquired in 1961 and compensation has yet to be paid, and ordered the Collector to appear in person before it on January 16, 2023, and file show-cause as to why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against him for nonpayment of compensation. In accordance with the ruling, Zilla Parishad Chief Development Officer-cum-Executive Officer Lalit Mohan Behera attended in person and claimed that the Collector was sick and so could not appear. He, being the Collector-in-Charge filed an affidavit taking a different stand.

But the court was not convinced with such a stand taken by him, and said that "But we are not convinced with such a stand taken by him. In any case, ... the compensation amount has not been paid to the petitioners till date, even though the writ petition was filed in the year 2013 and in the meantime more than 10 years have passed, and that the lands were acquired in the year 1961 and in the meantime more than 60 years have passed.”

The petitioners' land was acquired by the government in 1961, but no compensation has been paid to them since then. Despite several representations, no action was taken in this matter. As a result, they were forced to file a writ petition with the High Court in 2013 to seek the necessary action. The High Court's stern opinion showed the administration's callousness toward the agony of land oustees whose lands had been taken for various purposes in Angul district.

The order of the High Court may be read here.

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