Puri Eviction Drive: 15-Member Panel To Meet Collector Today

Puri: A day after the district administration postponed demolition of Bada Akhada Mutt following vehement opposition to the move from the sadhus, a 15-member committee is scheduled to meet Puri Collector Balwant Singh on Wednesday.

The committe led by Puri MLA Jayanta Sarangi, includes office-bearers of Puri District Bar Association, members of the Jagannath Temple managing committee and the affected persons, who are yet to receive compensation.

The committee was formed after a convention at the Puri Town Hall on Tuesday evening, attended by several sadhus and mutt chiefs (mahants), senior citizens and the displaced persons.

Condemning the move to demolish the mutt, the aggrieved sadhus had the told the media that how did the administration allow Simhadwara police station to operate from the mutt premises for such a long time if the building as it claims was ‘unsafe’.

Notably, the mahant of Bada Akhada Mutt Harinarayan Das on Tuesday had alleged that the district administration was putting pressure on him to sign documents mentioning that the structure of the mutt was unsafe though neither the Endowment Commissioner nor the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) had marked the building as risky.

He had also said that there was no clarity in the statement of the district administration on the demolition criteria.

Meanwhile, security has been tightened around the mutt.