35% Land Of 13 Odisha Temples Encroached: CAG; Check Details

Bhubaneswar: The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has pulled up the Odisha government over mismanagement of temples in the state.

According to CAG’s latest audit report on general and social sector for the year ending March 2020, over 4,500 acres of land of six temples in the state are under encroachment.

After an audit of the records of 13 temples in the state, the CAG report said that of the total 12,767.679 acres of land of these temples, only 5,749.464 acres (45.03 per cent) were under their possession while 35.28 per cent of the land was under encroachment.

The highest 4,030.78 acres of land belonging to Debottar Dhenkanal is under encroachment.

Similarly, 296.664 acres of Jagannath Ballav Math at Puri, 139.330 acres of Thakur Mahal at Nilagiri in Balasore, 36.370 acres of Lingaraj temple, 0.070 acres of Maa Mangala temple at Kakatpur and 0.657 acres of Maa Samaleswari temple are under encroachment.

On physical inspection of jewels (gold and silver) in 11 out of the 13 religious institutions, the audit found shortage of 823.334 grams of gold and 53,595.84 grams of silver — valued at Rs 60.07 lakh — in case of five shrines and a major discrepancy of 579.69 grams of gold and 52.182 kg of silver was noticed in Cuttack Chandi temple.