Alleging that land worth crores of rupees belonging to the Lord Lingaraj Temple Trust is being grabbed by fraudulent means, some locals of the Old Town area gheraoed the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) office here on Wednesday.
The agitators under the banner of Ekamra Jana Jagran Manch alleged that the Koraput building is located about 100 metre on the north side of the temple. The original owner of land is Lord Lingaraj and it was in the possession of the temple trust board.
But one Babita Butu and her husband have miraculously changed the original record of the property and managed to get it registered in their name. They have constructed a building on it and renting it to travellers for accommodation. Now, under the Ekamra scheme, a compensation of Rs 40 crore would be provided for the land on which Butu has constructed the building, they alleged. In addition, a letter has been sent to temple trust board by the BMC (No. 69953) to give a piece of land to Babita and her family near proposed bus-stand in lieu of their land. This would cause loss to temple trust board. They also alleged that some former corporators, BMC officials and locals are having a nexus in land grab. Among others, Mancha president Vishma Narayan Nayak, Saroj Mishra, Gopinath Pradhan, Manas Pati, Rajesh Mishra, Vijay Bhattacharya, Rakesh Nayak, Rajendra Kumar Nath, Manjulata Patnaik, Binodini Senapati, Vishnu Priya Jena, Manasi Mohanty were present.