After much hue and cry from various quarters over the Swargdwar land scam, Puri district Collector Arabind Agarwal on the Tuesday ordered a thorough probe into the cremation ground land grab.
He said that stern action would be taken against those found guilty and both criminal and civil cases would be initiated against them.
Talking to mediapersons on the Wednesday, Agarwal said that the development works of the Swargdwar cremation ground would start soon. The State Government has approved of a proposal in this regard and allocated over `90 crore for acquisition of 1 acre and 530 decimal of
land to create facilities to meet the ever increasing funeral rites.
If the land title is found defective, the compensation money of the land would go in to account of Sri Jagannath temple which is the actual owner of the entire cremation land, Agarwal added.
From 16 acre and 400 decimal land in 1928, the cremation ground has been constantly squeezing up and now it operates over only 465 decimal of land.
Jagannath Bastia, a senior journalist, in 2011 had submitted a petition with the Member Board of Revenue that over 10 acre of cremation land had been allegedly grabbed by unscrupulous persons in connivance with the Revenue officials.
An inquiry was conducted at the instance of the Member Board of Revenue. Besides, the Vigilance had also conducted an investigation into the land scam. Surprisingly, no action was taken against the land grabbers even after elapse of six years.
This apart, the Bagala Dharmsalla located alongside the Badadanda would be demolished and a new multi storied accommodation for pilgrims “Sri Jagannath Bisaram Bhavan” would be constructed at an estimated cost of ` crore, said sources.