Bhubaneswar, Feb 19: The Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) and Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) have agreed to spare residential houses in four slums from eviction for the ongoing matriculation examination.

The joint eviction squad of BDA and BMC took the decision after the slum dwellers of the four slums ie- Birabasa Basti, Laxmipur Basti, Gouda Sahi Basti and Srikrishna Nagar Basti resisted the eviction drive today.

The eviction is being carried out to facilitate construction of left parallel road connecting Ekamra Kanan and Info City.  

“The need of the left parallel road connecting Ekamra Kanan and Info City and the right parallel road passing through Gadakana from Sainik School with Damana is being planned to ease the traffic flow on the Jaydev-Vihar Nandan Kanan main road,” said an official.

BMC Commissioner Prem Chandra Chaudhary along with DCP, Anup Kumar Sahoo held a detailed discussion with protestors and it was agreed upon that 223 families from the area will get compensation / relocation money of Rs 25,000 and a land of 25X12 feet near their slum, where vacate government land is presently available. However, demolition of these houses will only take place after the matriculation exam. Officials said that commercial and business structures will be evicted from Thursday.