Cuttack: The Orissa High Court has directed the state government to provide "litigation-free" land to families whose properties were acquired for the upcoming Jagannath Temple heritage corridor project in Puri.
Disposing of a petition filed by seven displaced families, a division bench, comprising justices Kumari Sanju Panda and S K Panigrahi, has asked the Puri administration to allot land to them as compensation within six weeks.
"It is also imperative that the state government should take some proactive steps to have an effective redressal mechanism so that the land losers, whose lives are critically affected, do not run from pillar to post for securing their rights," the court said in its order on November 2.
The heritage corridor will be developed within the 75 -metre area from the boundary wall of the 12th-century shrine and the state government has been acquiring land for the purpose.
The government came out with a Rehabilitation and Resettlement (R&R) scheme for providing compensation to the affected families.
But the displaced families alleged that the state government had provided disputed land to them as compensation.
PTI
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