Indian State Gov't Obstructs Rebuilding of Orissa Church

http://www.christianpost.com/Intl/Persecution/2009/03/indian-state-gov-t-obstructs-rebuilding-of-orissa-church-01/index.html

[The Christian Post] 2 Mar 2009--The government of India’s Orissa state says it will not give permission for the Christian community in Batticola to rebuild a destroyed church because they do not hold the deed of ownership to the land.

A tribal priest had bought the land under his name but did not transfer the ownership to another party before he died.

"The Catholic community in Batticola is a very small minority, which emerged around 1975. At that time, a tribal priest, Fr. Joseph Pradhan, bought a tract of land in his own name and built a church on it,” explained a unidentified priest who was pastor in Batticola for a few years.

“All of this is legal, and the church of Batticola has the same status as other non-Christian religious buildings, all of them used for the needs of the inhabitants of the village, the land for which is bought by individuals and then transferred to the community," he told AsiaNews.

Earlier this week, Orissa officials had ordered Hindus to stop building a temple on top of the destroyed Batticola church. However, local Christians say the order does not make them happy because authorities have also blocked them from rebuilding their church, which was burned to the ground by Hindu extremist in August during an outbreak of anti-Christian violence.