BHUBANESWAR: The State Cabinet on Wednesday approved the Law department proposal for amendment of Shri Jagannath Temple Act, 1954 to pave way for alienation of the temple land and settlement in favour of people in occupation.
The Cabinet chaired by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik decided to amend the temple Act to remove certain restrictions in it and delegated powers to temple administration and officials concerned for sale, transfer and lease of land which is in name of Lord Jagannath to people who were in actual possession for years together, said Chief Secretary Suresh Mahapatra after the Cabinet meeting.
“The State government has decided to amend the Shri Jagannath Temple Act, 1954 to remove certain restrictions therein and delegate power to officials at different levels to facilitate speedy disposal of cases relating to alienation of immovable properties/lands belonging to the temple/Shri Jagannath Temple Managing Committee,” a release by the Law department said.
The Chief Secretary said that a large number of applications under the uniform policy introduced in 2003 for registration of the land in Puri and Khurda districts are pending before the State government for settlement of the temple land in their favour.
The process of resolution under the Act was time consuming and took almost three to four years. The Cabinet decided to simplify the process for prompt settlement of land rights by decentralising the process. This will resolve the problem of people residing on the temple land for over 50 years and the temple administration will also earn from it, he added.
Describing the decision as historic, Law Minister Pratap Jena said those residing on temple land will be able to get patta with the process being simplified. They can now approach the temple managing committee, temple administration and district collectors for settlement of the land in their possession.
The decision of the government to sell temple land stoked a political controversy in March last year following a reply from the Law Minister to a question of BJP chief whip Mohan Majhi. The Minister had informed the Assembly that the temple administration has reclaimed 34,876.983 acres of land and steps are being taken to sell the reclaimed land as per the Saman Niti (uniform policy) approved by the government. This led to a New Delhi-based organisation approaching the Supreme Court seeking direction to the State government restraining it from selling the temple land.