Illegal Crushers on Shree Jagannath Temple Land; SJTA identifies 147 of them

Puri: At least 147 illegal crusher units are operating on the land owned by the Shree Jagannath Temple of Puri. This was stated by the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) on Friday during a review meeting on landed properties of the temple.

It was found that out of 232 crusher units operating in Khordha and Begunia areas on landed property of Shree Jagannath Temple, only 85 units had entered into agreements with the SJTA in 2022-23. Out of them, only 52 crusher units have applied for renewal of their agreements for 2023-24.

SJTA has written to the Khordha district Collector, State Pollution Control Board (SPCB) and the State Energy Department regarding it. The SJTA has requested for immediate closure of the unauthorised crusher units and the collection of outstanding royalty amounts from them under the Orissa Public Demands Recovery (OPDR) Act.