District admin to take over Kusuma project in Jajpur

Jajpur: Amid a raging controversy over the luxurious bungalow constructed within the premises of children’s park at Kusuma pond campus in Jajpur, Collector Nikhil Pavan Kalyan on Saturday said the district administration will now take over the project.

“The project has been built on municipality land through CSR fund. After the construction of the project, the agency should have handed it over to the district administration. However, there has been a long gap over it. Now the district administration will take over the cottage and ensure its proper management,” he said. Kalyan said a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) will be prepared so that the project could be used by the public. The Collector further stated that he discussed the matter with the Sports department, which has clarified its status.

“We need to bring clarity on the matter. Since it is a government project and built on municipality land, the district administration will take it over.

It is public property. We will prepare an SOP so that the public can use it in future. We will also ensure its proper management,” he added.

Earlier on Friday, Jajpur Municipality Deputy Chairman Santosh Mallick said the bungalow on the premises of Children Park is built for the development of sports.

“With due permission from the State government, the land was purchased and transferred to the Sports department. As per the information with us, the project has been built with an expenditure of Rs 8 crore from the CSR fund of some companies. The municipality was requested to provide land for the Sports department,” said Mallick.

However, in response, the Sports department has clarified that no funds have been given from the department for the project and they have no information in this regard.

Meanwhile, mystery surrounds the nine cottages in the luxurious bungalow. While there was free entry for VIPs, a no-entry board was put up for the common people. Now, questions have been raised on whose interest the bungalows were constructed within the premises of children’s park.

Earlier, the locals had raised objections to construction of luxury buildings along the Kusuma pond and children’s park maintained by Jajpur municipality. They wanted to know why these cottages were constructed at a place meant for public use. They also alleged that influential people visited the cottages for amusement, fun and merry-making.