The Puri district administration has denied that a portion of the premises of Puri town’s lone government-owned lodge for pilgrims has been sold to six private hoteliers, as alleged by some social activists and the BJP.

It has said the plot — making up 12 per cent of the century-old Bagala Dharamsala’s premises — is being used to rehabilitate the Jagannath temple sevayats (servitors) and some others whose houses and shops were demolished to beautify the shrine’s surroundings.

A demolition drive was recently undertaken to clear areas within 75 metres of the temple to create a heritage corridor. The dharamsala, which provides cheap accommodation to pilgrims, is barely 300 metres from the temple.

“It is wrong to say that the Bagala Dharamsala land has been sold to private lodge owners. The Dharamsala building has not been allotted to anybody (either),” the district administration said in a media release. “(Those) who have given away their land are mostly sevayats....”

It said these people had responded to a government appeal and “donated” their land (on which their houses or commercial establishments stood) for the corridor project out of their “bhakti” (devotion) for the Lord.

“The rehabilitation policy has been approved by the cabinet and (it) is being executed to ensure security of the temple,” the release said. It said that while the Bagala Dharamsala can lodge 200 pilgrims, the government is building a “pilgrim centre/ lodge with a capacity of 2,000 for poor pilgrims” and will create accommodation for another 8,000 in Puri.

“Thus, the state government is in the process of almost increasing the poor pilgrim accommodation in Puri by 50 times, ie, from 200 to 10,000.”

However, Jagannath Bastia, a social activist and journalist who has moved a public interest plea in Orissa High Court against the purported sale of the land to private lodge owners, accused the district administration of “trying to mislead public opinion”.

“They have already executed the sale deed. I have documents to prove that. I will submit all the documents before the high court,” he said.

BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra, who lost from the Puri Lok Sabha seat in the 2019 general election and has been protesting the alleged sale of the land, too refused to accept the administration’s version. “There is a big conspiracy. The bigger plan is to hand over properties worth crores of rupees to influential people,” he said.

But Puri MP Pinaki Misra of the ruling Biju Janata Dal said: “Land has been allotted to those who had been staying within 75 metres of the temple for centuries.”