Over 5k unauthorised religious structures in Odisha: Govt to HC

The informed theOrissahigh court that the state still has 5,268 unauthorised constructions of religious nature on public land.
The High Court had registered a suo motu case with the title ‘removal of unauthorised religious structures on public land’ on February 24, 2020, following aSupreme Courtorder. Accordingly, the high court was taking stock of the current status of the matter inOdisha. The government had filed an affidavit indicating the status of unauthorised religious structures on public land on the basis of reports received from the districts by November 30, 2022.

The state government had since framed a policy under which committees had been constituted at the district level to take a call on which structure needs to be removed or relocated or which ones can be regularised.