PURI: Hundreds of BJP workers led by local MLA Jayant Sarangi on Friday staged demonstration protesting the sale of Bagala Dharmashala land to hoteliers. Shouting slogans against the Puri Collector, the agitators burned his effigy demanding restoration of the Dharmshala land at the earliest. Sarangi said while the case on the issue is pending in Orissa High Court with the State Government as an opposite party, the Collector has sold a portion of Dharmshala land to businessmen. This act of the district administration has raised many eyebrows.
Young Lawyers’ Forum president Srikant Parija along with a large number of advocates also staged protest against the Puri Collector for selling the heritage institutions in the pilgrim town with “scant regard to the law”. Sources said residents from all walks of life including politicians cutting across party lines are up in arms against the district administration for selling the centuries-old heritage institution Bagala Dharmshala’s land to hoteliers on the pretext of providing them a place to conduct business after their establishments were demolished to create the 75-metre heritage and security corridor around Meghanad Prachir of Sri Jagannath Temple.
Even local BJD leader and former Revenue minister Maheswar Mohanty has decried the move to sell six plots of Dharmashala land.In 1905, Seth Kanheyalal had established the Bagala Dharmashala with 56 rooms, nine dormitories and a pond on 2.574 acre of land along the Badadanda to cater to the needs of economically-backward devotees. He entrusted district Collector, who is the president of Puri Lodging House Fund Committee, with the management of the Dharamshala.
In 2016-17, the India Tourism Development Corporation demolished a dilapidated portion of the Dharamshala and reconstructed it at a cost of `1.5 crore under PRASAD Yojana.The present Puri Collector entrusted Odisha Bridge Construction Corporation to identify 22 plots to provide suitable land for lodging houses demolished for the heritage corridor and sought approval of plan from the Puri Konark Development Authority.
Earlier, the Dharmashala land was transferred to Puri Municipality and again recorded in favour of the Revenue and Disaster Management department by Puri additional tehsildar in response to a request from the district administration in violation of all existing legal norms, sources said.Social activist Jagannath Bastia, who had filed a PIL in this regard in Orissa High Court last year, filed a miscase in the HC on Thursday seeking status quo in the case to prevent the Collector from further selling the Dharmshala land. The case has been listed, he informed.