BJP claim of Odisha govt decision to sell 34,000 acre of Lord Jagannath land false: temple authorities
The BJP on Thursdaycondemned the Odisha governments alleged decision to sellover 34,000 acre of landed property of Lord Jagannath in andoutside the state, a charge denied by Shree Jagannath TempleAdministration (SJTA).
Leader of the Opposition P K Naik of the BJP said thatLaw Minister Pratap Jena has made it clear in the Assembly onMarch 16 that the BJD government had decided to sell over34,000 acre of land owned by Lord Jagannath.
SJTA chief administrator, Krishan Kumar, however,clarified that lands which are under illegal possession of anumber of people for long, are being settled by the templeauthorities as per a policy framed around two decades ago withan objective to protect the lands of Lord Jagannath.
The administration of Lord Jagannaths temple in Puriis under the law department of the state government and theSJTA, which is responsible for management of the shrine, isheaded by a senior IAS officer.
To a question of BJP member Mohan Majhi, the lawminister said in a written reply on March 16 that 60,426 acreof land in the name of Lord Jagannath has been identified in24 districts across the state and of this, over 34,800 acrehas been reclaimed and recorded in the name of the templeadministration.
This apart, over 395 acre of land of Lord Jagannathhas been identified in six states — West Bengal, Maharashtra,Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Bihar. Theauthorities concerned in those states have been communicatedto facilitate sell of land there, Jena said.
“Based on the recommendation of a (judicial)commission, the government has been taking measures to sellcertain land under unified policy,” the minister said.
In a Twitter post, the senior BJP leader described thedecision to “sell” the land owned by Lord Jagannath as “highlyobjectionable, unethical, against the spirit of crores ofHindus”.
The plots of land do not belong to the government butto God, Naik said.
“Sell of land of any temple, particularly received bythe government in the form of donation, is illegal. Governmentof Odisha cannot work like property dealer, sell the lands forrevenue,” he said.
SJTA chief administrator, Krishan Kumar, said that theallegation is “false and motivated”.
In a statement, Kumar said that plots of land underoccupation of others are being settled under the “UnifiedPolicy”.
The policy was framed to bringing transparency anduniformity in the process to be followed for settlement ofland to eligible persons, he said.
He pointed out that a total of 291 acre of land wassettled between 2001 and 2010 while it had been 96 acrebetween 2011 and 2021.
The SJTA urged people and devotees of Lord Jagannathnot to be misguided by “malicious” and “false” reporting.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Federal staff and is auto-published from a syndicated feed.)