Cuttack, July 2: Orissa High Court has granted two weeks’ time to the state government to reply to allegations made by Nationalist Lawyers’ Forum regarding an alleged misuse of Puri Municipality’s land.

The forum alleged that about 70 per cent of the 1,000 decimal land allotted to Puri Municipality for the Swargadwar crematorium was being used for other purposes.

The forum’s secretary and counsel Nishikanta Mishra made the allegations on the present status of the land allotted for the crematorium while making his submissions during a hearing on a PIL related to it yesterday. Mishra said that of the 1,000 decimal land, only 368 decimal was now being used for the cremation.

The remaining land were being used for other purposes, while illegal constructions were also coming up around the crematorium land, he alleged. The state counsel, however, sought time to respond to the fresh allegations. The division bench of Chief Justice C. Nagappan and Justice Indrajit Mahanty directed to list the matter for hearing after two weeks.