Online Platform To Be Launched For Puri Jagannath Temple Land Settlement

Bhubaneswar: In order to ease the process of its land settlement cases, the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) in Odisha’s Puri has decided to develop an online platform.

SJTA’s chief administrator Arabinda Padhee said the decision aims at helping the individuals occupying temple land sell or transfer the property online instead of running to SJTA office repeatedly. Now they have to submit manual applications to SJTA for the purpose under the Odisha government’s Uniform Policy-2003.

Padhee said the dedicated website would accept the applications for Jagannath temple property settlements. “We have proposed to name for the portal as www.shreesampatti.in. The URL and its features will be finalised after consultation with the temple managing committee. People need not run to the SJTA office for the work. They can check the status of their applications online,” TOI quoted Padhee as saying.

According to official sources, the temple administration has identified 60,426 acre of land belonging to Lord Jagannath in 24 districts of Odisha. Besides, there over 395 acre in West Bengal, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Bihar.

Currently, though thousands of people occupy temple land, they have no official records or patta (Land deeds) to claim ownership.

Law minister Prithiviraj Harichandan had recently indicated that small patches of land would be sold at reduced rates to occupants, while larger encroached areas would be sold at market cost. The government planned to create a corpus fund of around Rs 10,000 crore for the temple from the process, he added.