Council General Secretary Dilip Das Sharma said that the university on Monday put up a notice at the VSS Nagar entrance regarding keeping the gate closed on Sundays and holidays. He told that the very next day the university staff had dug the gate and on Wednesday there was a wall.
“When VSS came to Nagar in 1978, there were many employees living in the housing board colony in our area. Many of them have got quarters here. Then the gate was opened for them. But now the university suddenly closed it. We will oppose this move of the institution,” said Dash Sharma. He also alleged that the university has occupied the land of VSS Nagar by building a boundary wall. “We have space between Laxmi Vihar and VSS Nagar, but the university has built a boundary wall on our land, blocking the way to Acharya Vihar. The university cannot remove the encroachers from inside the campus but closes the gate by calling us outsiders,” he said.
Utkal University registrar Avaya Kumar Nayak said the students and staff were complaining to the vice-chancellor of the university against the rash driving act of outsiders coming through this gate. Even some of them had to face accidents due to speeding. He said that some outsiders had stolen the equipment used for water taps and pipes
A meeting of the Development Committee was held under the chairmanship of the Vice-Chancellor on this issue. The committee decided to permanently block the entry of four wheelers by building a wall at the gate. Because we already have two existing gates in the university and we will soon open a new one from the Vani Vihar Chowk side,” Nayak said.
He added that the small gate is still open to the public (except on Sundays and holidays). “We will review the traffic through the narrow gate after a month. If we do not find any change in the situation, we can either build a narrow gate for pedestrians or close it permanently,” he said.
He said that they have started closing the small open space between the boundary wall near Patharbandh slum. They said they are considering people’s requests regarding a shorter route to a treatment center located next to the university’s boundary wall.
We have written a letter to the General Administration Department, Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) and Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) to verify the claim made by the local people of VSS Nagar regarding the land. “After getting clarifications from these government offices, we will take our next action,” the registrar said.
Meanwhile, Utkal University will build a new entrance from the Vani Vihar Chowk side. It will have an 800 meter road with a bridge over the drainage channel near the campus with an estimated cost of Rs 5 crore. “It will connect the administrative building through Govind Sahu Bazar. The gate will be beautified. The existing main gate will become an exit gate,” he said.