CUTTACK: The legal controversy surrounding the implementation of an Orissa high court single-judge bench order regarding the naming of the largest of the four hot springs in the state, six months after a division bench had quashed it, shows no sign of ending.In 1994, the state government had declared Tarabalo in Khandapara area of Nayagarh district a tourist resort. Following this, the name Tarabalo hot spring had found a pride of place on the tourist map and among the 193 identified tourist centres in the state. Spread over 15 acres and considered to be one of the largest in the country, the hot spring fountain is situated next to the temple of Ketakiswari.According to the Geological Survey of India records, the hot springs in Tarabalo are located in the midst of cultivated land and cover an area of 0.01sqkm near Tarabalo village. There are two hot springs 20 metres apart in the form of small pools. Tarabalo also finds a place in the list of hot springs in the world.The matter first reached the high court when people of the adjacent Nilakanthaprasad village filed a PIL seeking a direction to rectify the error and name it as Nilakanthaprasad hot spring in 2000, six years after the tourism and culture department declared Tarabalo a health resort and tourist spot.Acting on it, the single-judge bench of Justice Sanju Panda directed the state government to describe the Tarabalo hot spring as per some historical name of the state on February 5, 2016.The state tourism and culture department renamed the Tarabalo (hot spring) as Nilakandar (hot spring) through a notification issued on February 25, 2017. The notification cited the February 5, 2016 high court order.But by then a division bench of the high court had on July 4, 2016 set aside the February 5, 2016 single- judge bench order for having passed it without jurisdiction.The issue of naming the hot spring returned to the high court when Dhaneswar Pradhan (67) and 29 other residents of Tarabalo village pointed out the lapse while moving the high court by way of a PIL for quashing the state tourism and culture department’s notification that had renamed the hot spring.On August 22, 2017, a division bench issued notices to the tourism and culture department to file a reply to the PIL and set the matter for hearing after six weeks. However, the case went into oblivion till the state government filed an affidavit on November 19, 2018.“The case was last taken up on December 10, 2018. On that day, the division bench of Chief Justice KS Jhaveri and Justice KR Mohapatra in an interim order imposed restrictions on any kind of action on the basis of the notification that had renamed the Tarabola hot spring,” petitioner counsel Bhawani Shankar Rayguru told TOI on Wednesday.The bench has set February 18 for a hearing on the matter. “We will file a rejoinder to the affidavit filed by the state government,” Rayguru added. The court imposed the interim restrictions after it was pointed out that the state tourism department had laid the foundation for constructing a gateway to Nilakandar hot spring after sanctioning Rs 20 lakh for the same.

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