Land grab slur: Trahi Achyuta ashram to reply on Sep 7

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Aug 29:

Head of the Trahi Achyuta Ashram at Jhinti, on the outskirts of Odisha capital, Surendra Mishra today did not appear in person before the Balianta tehsildar court in the land grabbing case against the ashram.

Mishra was represented through the ashram’s counsel Manmohan Patnaik who prayed for 15 days time to reply to the show cause notice served on the ashram.

The tehsildar directed the ashram authorities to file reply on September 7, failing which appropriate action will be initiated to free the land of encroachment.

“They haven’t produced any documents. They sought for the records pertaining to the notice we have served them. They had asked for 15 days time to file the reply. We did not allow 15 days time, I have asked them to file the reply on September 7. If they fail to reply within that time, appropriate action will be taken in accordance with law,” the tehsildar said.

The  tehsildar had issued  a show-cause notice to Surendra Mishra on August 27 asking  him why he should not be evicted from the government land he has encroached on.

“As per the land records, the ashram has encroached on 21 decimals of government land. We have asked the ashram head to furnish a reply on this by August 29,” the tehsildar had said on August 27.

It is worthwhile to mention here that it is not as if the tehsil office was not aware of the encroachment. It had registered a case against the ashram in 2010, but mysteriously did not take any steps for eviction.

The Balianta tehsildar had directed the concerned Revenue Inspector (RI) to probe into the land encroached by the ashram authorities and submit a report after a series of reports in leading Odia daily ‘Sambad’ about the shady activities in the ashram.

As per the report of the RI, the Trahi Achyuta Trust has 3.76 acres of land in its name of which 81 decimals come under gharabari category, 24 decimals under patita category and 22 decimals under bagayat category. Besides, 19 decimals of land comprise water bodies while two acres are agriculture land.

Apart from this, the ashram authorities have encroached on 1.29 acres of government land where a Dola Mandap and a few houses have been built.

The encroached government land has been registered in the name of Trilochan Mishra, brother of the ashram head Sura Baba, and Dinabandhu Sundaray and Jibanakrushna Sundaray, two brothers from Badagada  area.