Chhatrapur: Chhatrapur Notified Area Council (NAC) is the headquarters of Ganjam district. Residents have long been demanding municipality status in Chhatrapur. However, to date, the state government is yet to fulfill the demand and is sitting on the proposal. This has created resentment among the locals. In the civic body polls held last year, the BJD lost the chairperson’s post (reserved for women) to the BJP. This was the outcome of the resentment against the state government, locals pointed out. They added that despite the reversal, the government is yet to take any action to grant municipality status to Chhatrapur.
Before the civic body polls, the MP and the then-district collector had assured people that the state government would grant municipality status to the Chhatrapur NAC. The collector and the NAC officials had sent a proposal with documents as proof of eligibility criteria for municipality status to the state government for consideration. Chhatrapur NAC was formed in 1955.
As per the 2011 census, the population of the NAC stood at 22,027. Rules state that any civic body area with a population of more than 25,000 will be considered for municipality status. Locals said that since 2011, the population of Chhatrapur has increased manifold and is more than 25,000 now. Yet it is not being granted municipality status. They also pointed out that some villages in nearby panchayats have agreed to come under the Chhatrapur NAC when it is awarded municipality status.
Residents of Jain Palam village (Agastinuagaon panchayat) and Purunachhatrapur (Kanamana panchayat) have given their consent for a merger with Chhatrapur. The Orissa High Court had asked August 8, 2019 the state government to take a decision on granting municipality status to Aska, Bhanjanagar and Chhatrapur NACs in Ganjam district.
Disposing of a PIL filed by Surendra Panigrahi, president of Berhampur-based outfit Bharatiya Bikash Parishad, a division bench of Chief Justice KS Jhaveri and Justice KR Mohapatra had directed the state government to take a decision on the representation submitted by the petitioner for declaration of the three NACs as municipalities within three months. The petitioner had also said that a proposal to declare Aska, Chhatrapur, and Bhanjanagar as municipalities had been submitted to the chief minister’s office May 8, 2018. It had been pointed out that all three municipalities had populations of over 25,000 each.
In the proposal, the outfit had proposed the inclusion of five neighbouring areas in Aska NAC, nine in Bhanjanagar NAC, and four in Chhatrapur NAC. It had been pointed out that these areas were being deprived of communication and transport, water supply, electricity, education, and health facilities due to non-inclusion in urban local body areas.