TV
A group of elderly residents from Bhubaneswar handed over a written complaint to the Odisha Chief Minister’s grievance cell on Monday, raising allegations against KIIT University over the forceful occupation of their land located near the varsity in the Capital City.
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The complainants have approached the Chief Minister, asserting that officials from the varsity have unlawfully restricted access to the land they legally own, by installing gates and obstructing roads with sand and debris.
The senior citizens, who possess over an acre of land in Patharagadia locality, had previously taken their grievances to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), claiming that KIIT University and Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) had encroached on their property without due permission, thereby violating their right to access.
On March 12, 2025, landowner Bansidhar Behera, along with fellow landowners, made a formal complaint at Infocity Police Station against the varsity authorities and its founder Achyuta Samanta, detailing their concerns about the alleged encroachment.
Accusations of land grabbing and harassment
“Eight persons including me had purchased an acre of land under Patharagadia Mouza in 1982-83. Subsequently, the KISS school was started, and since then, we are being harassed for nearly 40 years. They have encroached a public road, vandalised our compound walls, and even dumped hospital waste of KIMS (Kalinga Institute of Medical Sciences) on the land,” a joint landowner, Bansidhar Behera stated to mediapersons.
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“We had deployed a watchman to guard the land, who was threatened by them. They have grabbed several lands in the nearby locality. More than 500 truck-loads of sand, stone chips, laterite stones have been dumped on the land,” Bansidhar Behera further said.
Repeated attempts to obtain a response from the university authorities on the allegations have gone unanswered so far.
