The Seraikela-Kharsawan administration razed 30 under-construction houses at Kuluptanga along the Kharkai river in Adityapur on Thursday evening.

The demolition drive was carried out in the presence of a senior official from Gamharia circle office after instructions from Seraikela-Kharsawan deputy commissioner A. Dodde. An excavator and over a dozen labourers were engaged for the purpose on Thursday evening.

A team of cops from the RIT police station in Adityapur was also present during the two-hour-long drive that started at 5pm.

“Some criminals had attempted to grab the government land in Adityapur when we were busy with the Assembly elections. But when the matter came to the notice of deputy commissioner A. Dodde, he instructed us to remove the encroachment by razing the under-construction structures,” said Dhananjay Rai, the circle officer of Gamharia.

Rai said the administration is alert against encroachment and no one will be allowed to construct illegal structures on government land.

According to sources, 40 plots spread over a stretch of two-and-half acres have been sold to people at a cost of Rs 400/sqft.

The plots along Radhaswami Temple Road facing the Kharkai river is just 2km from Bistupur. As there is acute land crisis, over three dozen people had paid the land mafia for plots on the encroached government land after assurances from the mafia that the land is free of illegalities.

Local goons Tata Hembram, Manoj Sardar and Bablu Biruli had started developing buildings on the government land earmarked as “encroached land” to sell it to buyers for buildings, whereas the land could have been used for cultivation.

The trio, residents of Kuluptanga in Adityapur, had started developing the plots when the administration was busy with the just-concluded-five-phase Assembly elections. A resident on Friday said the trio has gone underground after the administration razed the under-construction structures.

The Telegraph in its December 3, 2019, edition had carried a report titled “Encroacher sells off government land”, drawing the administration’s attention towards land mafia.