Status quo on Swargadwar continues

The Orissa High Court has extended the interim stay of status quo on the expansion of crematorium at Swargadwara in Puri. While extending the stay on Friday, the HC also posted the next hearing of the issue in the first week of January.

The Nationalist lawyers’ forum, which had in a PIL alleged of massive encroachment of land allotted to Swargadwara crematorium at Puri, meanwhile filed its rejoinder in refuting the claims made by the state government.

The petitioner advocate Nishikant Mishra in his rejoinder to the state affidavit contended that the documents attached to the affidavits clearly indicate that over half of the 1000 decimals of land allotted to the Puri Municipality in 1985 for the expansion of the crematorium have been encroached upon by land mafias, hoteliers, travel agents and political leaders.

Mishra in his rejoinder also questioned when the land allotment was made in favour of the Puri Municipality way back in 1985, why the civic body has not yet obtained the record of rights (RoR) of the plots.

He also claimed that while the civic body is bereft of RoR of its land, the encroachers made attempts to procure the RoRs in their favour.