Odishatv Bureau
Khurda: Lord Jagannath is for sale. That seems to be the order of the day. After the detection of irregularities in handing over the land rights of the land in front of the Puri Swargadwar and hundreds of acres of land at Saipasarubali, another major land scam entailing Lord Jagannath has come to the fore and this time it is from Khurda. The scam involves a hill and is worth over Rs.200 crores.

Nilachakra Hill, standing beside the National Highway Number 5 near Khurda, spreads over 112 acres of land. Can you imagine an entire hill and its adjacent land measuring 112 acres was valued at just Rs. 46,09,667. That means just one rupee per square foot. The culprit in this case is none other than the Puri Lord Jagannath Temple Administration. The huge patch of land belonged to Lord Jagannath and the temple administration was its care taker hence. The temple administration has sold out, rather doled out the said piece of land to Bhubaneswar based construction company, the Kukumina Constructions. The actual worth of the land would cross Rs 200 crores.

The matter came to light after the local people complained against the unscrupulous deal. The locals are up an arms against the deal and have threatened to take to the streets unless the deal is cancelled. Questions arise how could the temple administration sale out a hill flouting all rules which prohibit selling of forests, streams and hills. The Khurda district collector Rupa Mishra assure that she would investigate the matter. The state vigilance department too has initiated investigations after it was raised by the media. But despite repeated requests officials of the temple administration denied to utter a single word on the controversial deal.

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