Amid growing anxiety over civic notices served on homeowners and small traders, Odisha Housing and Urban Development Minister Dr Krushna Chandra Mahapatra on Sunday assured that the state government will work towards a permanent, lawful and public-interest solution to commercial and service establishments operating in residential projects across Bhubaneswar.
The assurance came at a meeting organised by the BJP’s Bhubaneswar organisational district. Present were BJP corporators of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC), district president Niranjan Mishra, Ekamra-Bhubaneswar MLA Babu Singh, former MLA Priyadarshi Mishra, party leader Jagannath Pradhan and district in-charge Saroj Kar.
The discussion centred on a problem that has quietly defined many city neighbourhoods for years: kirana stores, clinics, salons, tuition centres, repair shops and other essential services tucked into residential layouts. For thousands of families, these units are not optional side businesses. They are the main source of income.
What changed the mood was enforcement. Acting on Supreme Court directions and existing planning law, BMC has issued notices to house owners and commercial units, asking them to produce documents and warning of action if the use of a residential building for non-residential purposes cannot be justified. The drive has left many traders and residents uncertain about whether their shops will survive the next round of inspections.
Minister Mahapatra said the issue cannot be treated as a narrow question of rule-book enforcement alone. The government, he said, will respect the law. But it will also weigh public interest, livelihood and the actual character of Bhubaneswar as a city that grew with mixed-use streets long before today’s planning disputes sharpened.
“The honour of the law must be protected. At the same time, public interest, livelihoods and ground reality have to be kept in view,” the minister said, adding that necessary legal and administrative steps would be examined carefully to find a long-term and acceptable way forward.
That message was also meant as a calming signal. Homeowners, small traders, service-unit owners and ordinary residents were asked not to panic, not to act on rumours, and not to assume that notices automatically mean sudden closure. The government, the meeting was told, would take the human and practical side of the problem into account before deciding the next course.
The meeting also underlined a process, not just a promise: any durable solution would need consultation with all stakeholders — residents, traders, civic officials and the planning authorities — rather than a one-sided crackdown.
The tension is real because both sides of the argument have force. Residential colonies complain of congestion, parking chaos and a slow conversion of quiet streets into unplanned commercial strips. Traders reply that many of these shops predate current enforcement, serve daily needs within walking distance, and cannot be uprooted overnight without wrecking household incomes. Civic bodies, meanwhile, are under court pressure to stop unauthorised change of land use.
Sunday’s political intervention does not by itself rewrite building bye-laws or cancel notices already issued. What it does is place the controversy on the government’s agenda as a problem of urban governance, not merely of sealing drives. For a city where neighbourhood shops are woven into everyday life, that distinction matters.
The minister’s appeal was simple: wait for a considered solution, and do not let fear fill the gap until one arrives.
