Puttur on a demolition mode After a heritage school now houses around a temple
Puttur (Dakshina Kannada district): A group of 8 houses in the close vicinity of the fabled Mahalingeshwara temple in Puttur city is now under a demolition drive. 16 families that have been living there for over 60 years have been asked to vacate; some of them have already vacated, and two of them have approached the local court against the demolition.
According to the residents, only two of them have their own dwelling units elsewhere and have moved out without any objection. Four houses have been rented out by the original lessees and have been asked to vacate after the tenants failed to produce any valid documents; one house, which was under a rental agreement with an advocate of Ujire, got damaged beyond repairs due to an old tree falling on it during clearance drive. Two more houses will be vacated on Wednesday where one Brahmin family is employed by the temple.
One of the residents, Rajesh Bannur, said they had promised compensation to the residents, but it had yet to materialise. He himself has other accommodations, but the poor Brahmin family does not have anywhere to go.
Ashok Kumar Rai, MLA of Puttur, said, “The lease or rental agreement of all residents executed by the temple ended 50 years ago, and none of the original lessees are living there. Many of the houses have been sublet illegally to their kin and they have also rented them out to migrant labourers. These houses have been partitioned into at least 3-4 parts, and each of them accommodates 3-4 people. They did not have individual toilets, a kitchen, or even decent sleeping spaces; this led to the creation of a slum-like situation near the temple. We have offered compensation for those living there, and modalities are being worked out,” Rai said.
The Puttur Municipality and the Temple development committee plan to build a road to the rear portion of the temple in the space where the old houses stood. We have got Rs. 2 crores from the endowment department for this work