Puri: The Puri district administration has sold out the ‘Bagala Dharmasala’ land in this city. Plots have been sold to lodge and residential owners who were displaced owing to security reasons and beautification of the Jagannath temple, Additional Collector Binaya Kumar Dash, said Wednesday. He informed that 340 decimals of land have been sold to six such owners.
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Dash was refuting allegations that Puri District Collector Balwant Singh had sold of the plots to outsiders. Dash said that the allegations were ‘baseless and untrue’. He informed that the land was sold as per the directives of the Odisha government. He also said that the ‘Lodging-House Fund Committee Act 2018’ stands withered.
Lodge and house owners had cooperated with the Odisha government and sacrificed their livelihoods. They had to vacate their properties that were situated within 75 metres of the temple’s compound wall (Meghanad Pacheri). After that the ‘Bagala Dharmasala’ land on Grand Road was chosen to rehabilitate those displaced. Accordingly, sale deeds were done in their respective names, district administration sources informed.
However, the move has come in for criticism from a number of people including, ex-Minister Maheswar Mohanty. “The Odisha government should reconsider its decision on sale of land which falls under Bagala land. “This was the only government land on Grand Road which was providing service to hundreds of poor and lower class devotees, for the past several decades,” Mohanty said.
PNN