Swargadwara land grab: Over 10 acre encroached property restored in Odisha’s Puri
Puri: Titles of over 10 acres of encroached land belonging to Swargadwara in Odisha’s Puri were today restored in favour of Shri Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA).
OEA Collector pronounced the order after disposing of 170 cases. The encroached land of 10.17 acres was restored under Odisha Estate Abolition Act, 1951.
Sources said, order on another 6.383 acre encroached land will be pronounced later.
Notably, the temple management committee had prayed to bring back 30.400 acre land of which around 14 acres have already been restored.
Earlier, it had come to the notice of the court that the encroached patches of land had been sold off with forged documents for which notices were also served to respondents.
Worth mentioning, SJTA had moved court and filed a case under OEA Act in 1990 to restore 30 acres of Swargadwara land which were erroneously recorded in favour of individuals. The court had ruled that the land belonged to the 12th century shrine since 1899 and were recorded in the name of some individuals without the knowledge of the temple management committee.
Interestingly, the crematorium which stood on 16.04 acre was shrunk to only one acre as the land was encroached by some individuals.
In April last year, an encroachment drive was launched to free the crematorium from encroachment.
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