Followers of Sringeri Sankara Mutt and Raghavendra Swamy Mutt in Sagar staged a protest here on Tuesday demanding stern action against the officials of the Department of Revenue and Sagar City Municipal Council for allegedly damaging the property belonging to the two mutts in the name of clearing encroachment.
Addressing the protest meet, advocate Ashok Bhat said that a few structures belonging to the two mutts, including the yaga shala, temple of Navagrahas and a portion of the residence of priests had been demolished in the name of encroachment clearance.
According to a survey conducted earlier, the administrative committees of both the mutts had encroached about half-a-gunta of land belonging to Ganapathikere, a tank on the outskirts of Sagar. It was unfortunate that the officials conducted a re-survey of the area recently, keeping the administrative committees of both the mutts in dark, and had prepared a false report that 12 guntas of land belonging to the tank had been encroached upon by Sankara Mutt and four guntas of land by Raghavendra mutt. The survey was not consistent with the existing laws, he said.
Based on this survey report, the officials undertook the encroachment clearance drive, without providing prior intimation to the administrative committees of the two mutts. The property belonging to both the mutts had been damaged in the operation and thereby, the officials had hurt the sentiments of the devotees, he said.Mr. Bhat said that the administrative committees of both the mutts were willing to cooperate with the government in clearing the encroachment, if there was any. The officials had not verified the documents with both the mutts regarding the ownership of the disputed area. The officials had displayed highhandedness and acted on their whims and fancies in this case, he said. He pressed the Deputy Commissioner to conduct a probe into the incident and initiate stern action against the officials responsible for damaging the mutt properties. The government should bear the loss suffered by the two mutts, he said.
K.B. Prasanna Kumar, Shivamogga MLA; L.T. Thimmappa Hegde, ex-MLA; and S. Dattatri, president of the district unit of the BJP took part in the protest.
