Puri: The district administration has recorded 11.143 acre land, located close to the Swargadwar cremation ground here, in the name of Shree Jagannath temple managing committee.
Similarly, the district administration has taken possession of 2.448 acre land near Swargadwar owned by the state government after disposing of a land settlement case recently.
Earlier, the administration had brought 1.893 acre land under the control of the state government.
“We have brought altogether 15.484 acre land near Swargadwar to the ownership of Srimandir and state government,” said Puri tehsildar Prabir Khilar.
The Jagannath temple authorities were originally in possession of 30 acre and 110 decimal land at Balisahi mauza as per records of a land settlement conducted in 1889. Residents of the pilgrim city were using 16 acre and 400 decimal land belonging to Srimandir at Balisahi as a cremation ground, popularly known as Swargadwar.
However, several influential persons had encroached upon the temple land at Balisahi by allocating a small plot for cremation of bodies. The Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) had filed a case with Puri tehsildar’s court urging it to record all landed properties of Srimandir in the name of temple managing committee.
“Altogether, 238 individuals had managed to acquire ownership over 14.626 acre land belonging to the Srimandir near Swargadwar during various land settlements. We will serve notices on these people and examine the validity of their land records,” Khilar added.
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