Titles of over 10 acres of encroached land belonging to the Swargadwar crematorium in Puri were restored in favour of the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) on Wednesday.
The Odisha Estate Abolition (OEA) Collector pronounced the order after disposing of 170 cases. The encroached land of 10.17 acres was restored under the Odisha Estate Abolition Act, 1951.
Sources said that an order on another 6.383 acres of encroached land would be pronounced later.
Notably, the temple management committee had prayed to bring back 30.400 acres of 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.
Notably, the SJTA had moved the court filing a case under the OEA Act in 1990 to restore 30 acres of Swargadwar land which was erroneously recorded in favour of individuals. The court had ruled that the land belonged to the temple since 1899 and was recorded in the names of some individuals without the knowledge of the temple management committee.
Interestingly, the crematorium which stood on 16.04 acres was shrunk to only one acre as the lost land was encroached by individuals. In April last year, a drive had been launched to free the crematorium from the encroachment.
