Puri, May 9: On Monday, around 11,143 acres of Bebandobast (unsettled land) belonging to Swargadwar here were restored by the Sri Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA). In a landmark verdict, the Tehsildar court here, announced that the 11,143 acres of property will be recorded in the official record of the SJTA. Along with 1,893 acres of unsettled land, the state government has also restored 2,488 acres of land of the crematorium having earmarked roads. It further stated that it has found out from the submitted evidence that 10,256 acres of land has been sold out by using forged documents in which 240 persons have been held responsible.
In 1990, the SJTA had lodged a case under the Odisha Estate Abolition Act in the court of Tehsildar here to record 30 acres of Swargadwar land that had been wrongly recorded in favor of some individuals. As per the case, the land was of the temple since 1899 and it was illegally favored to some individuals with informing the temple management committee.
