Puri: The Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) on Thursday clarified that there is no proposal to sell land belonging to the Puri shrine.
“It has been falsely reported that 35,000 acres of land of Lord Jagannath are being sold. This is a complete distortion of facts and is blatantly false and motivated,” the SJTA said in a Twitter post.
It further informed that the temple managing committee is settling the issue of temple land being occupied or are under possession of various persons as per the unified policy framed in 2003.
It is again reiterated that the reporting that 35,000 acres of land of Shree Jagannatha Mahaprabhu will be sold, is totally false & motivated. We urge the people of Odisha & millions of devotees of Lord Jagannatha to not be misguided by such malicious lies &false reporting. (7/7)
— Shree Jagannatha Temple Office, Puri (@SJTA_Puri) March 18, 2021
The objective of the unified policy was to protect the land of the Lord and bring transparency and uniformity in the processes to be followed for settlement of land to the eligible persons, the temple administration pointed out.
The SJTA further stated that 291 acres of land have been settled from 2001 to 2010 and 96 acres from 2011 to 2021 for public benefit in the form of schools, medical college, roads, etc.
The SJTA statement came two days after the Law, Housing and Urban Development Minister, Pratap Jena, told the Odisha Assembly that the government has begun the process to sell more than 35,000 acres of land recorded in the name of Lord Jagannath.
Reacting to the announcement of the minister, BJP leader Baijayant Panda termed the move of the state government a relic of the colonial era’s bizarre perversion of secularism.
This Odisha govt plan is causing deep anguish across the state. This relic of the colonial-era’s bizarre perversion of “secularism,” where govt controls the places of worship of one religion in India (& only one), is long past its sell-by date. Please speak up. Now. pic.twitter.com/C0IhJQ6XWr
— Baijayant Jay Panda (@PandaJay) March 18, 2021
Also Read: Odisha Govt To Sell Over 35,000 Acres Of Jagannath Temple Land
