PIL Seeks Recovery Of Landed Properties Of Lord Jagannath

Cuttack: A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has been filed in the Orissa High Court for recovery of landed properties of Lord Jagannath in Puri

The PIL, filed by Sarat Chandra Sahu, a native of Chandanpur area and SS Banerjee of Puri district, has informed the court that the Odisha government has not taken any specific step to recover about 56,000 acres of encroached landed properties of Lord Jagannath in the neighbouring Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, and West Bengal and some areas in Puri district.

The estimated amount of these landed properties would be around Rs 10,000 crore of which the landed properties in Puri district would be more than Rs 2000, the petitioners have pointed out.

Drawing the attention of the court, they have said that while most of the landed properties of the Lord have been taken possession by the people in a fraudulent manner with the knowledge of some corrupt officials, the state government has not shown any urgency in the recovery of these encroached land as per the directive of the Supreme Court.

“Though the apex court, while hearing a writ petition in 2015 had asked the state government to recover the encroached and record these in the name of the Lord, the latter has not carried out the order till date,” they pointed out.

The petitioners have prayed the court for its urgent intervention in the matter and direct the state government to give necessary instructions to the Revenue and Law departments to probe into the matter and initiate stern action against the corrupt officials.