JOGENDRANATH TARAI Vs. STATE OF ORISSA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) IN the present Writ Petition the Petitioners seek to challenge the illegal and arbitrary action of the Opp. Parties in taking a decision for demolition of earthen embankment, which surrounds the villages of Siandi and Noliapatna as well as the agricultural land, to a length of 2 Kms which has been constructed from the time immemorial by the villagers with the help of the Government. The said embankment is also used as a passage to go to the sea beach for fishing and it directly protects the villagers as well as the agricultural land from entering the saline water of the sea and Chilika. Thus, the action of the Opp. Parties -Government is completely against the interest of the villagers of 3 Panchayats, namely, Siandi, Siala and Malud as it directly affects the livelihood of the villagers living in and around Chilika.

(2.) THE present Writ Petition is in the nature of a Public Interest Litigation. Petitioner Nos. 1 and 2 are the senior citizens; Petitioner No. 3 is one of the responsible persons of the locality and Petitioner Nos. 4 and 5 are the students, who are continuing their MBA and Post Graduate Courses respectively and they are involved with many social organizations engaging themselves in various social activities in representative capacity of the villagers of Siandi and Noliapatna.

(3.) MR . S.K. Dalai, Learned Counsel appearing on behalf of the Petitioners submits that Chilika Policy was framed in the year 1994 pursuant to the direction of this Court in the case of Kholamuhana Primary Fishermen Cooperative Society and Ors. v. State of Orissa and Ors. : AIR 1994 Ori 191 and accordingly, Chilika was surveyed. As per said survey, the area of Chilika is 47,000 acres. There are two types of sources introduced; one is culture source and other is capture source. This Court directed the State Government to form a policy both for fishermen and non -fishermen. The culture source was meant for both fishermen and non -fishermen and the capture source was made only for fishermen. Out of the total area of Ac 47,000, Ac 20,000 were reserved for carrying on culture with a ratio of 60:40 for non -fishermen and fishermen respectively and rest 27,000 acres of land were categorically fixed as capture source for the fishermen. The land in question was accordingly distributed to different adjacent villages for culture source. In the year 1997 in the case of S. Jagannath v. Union of India and Ors. : AIR 1997 SC 811, the Apex Court directed to prohibit any type of culture within the coastal Regulation zone which covers the Chilika Lake. Thus, the only right of fishermen continued to capture inside Chilika. After the decision of the Apex Court in the year 1997 the Government has not formulated any policy in the interest of the inhabitants and citizens of Orissa. On the other hand, by the name of eviction every year the Government is spending huge amount of public money and in the process, the Government is losing crores of rupees. In the year 1994 the Prawn Mafias were the monarchs of Chilika, but now -a -days the Officers like Collector, Sub -Collector and Tahasildar, who supervise directly the eviction process are the real monarchs of Chilika.