BHUBANESWAR: The Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) on Saturday filed a police complaint alleging attempts are being made to sell land belonging to Lord Jagannath under Matitota mouza in Puri.
As per the complaint, efforts are being made to illegally plot and sell land of Lord Jagannath present in Matitota mauza (unit -1, khata number 38) in the city.
There are a total of 109 plots on over 64.88 acre in the area - all registered in the name of Puri Marfat Shri Jagannath Mandira Parichalana Committee.
In a release, the SJTA informed that the district collector has been urged to take immediate measures to stop the illegal sale attempt.
The temple administration also urged people not to fall into the trap laid by land mafia or any organisation trying to sell land belonging to Lord Jagannath.
Chief administrator of SJTA Arabinda Padhee said the process of digitisation of all land belonging to ‘Shri Jagannath Mahaprabhu Bije, Puri Marfat Shri Jagannath Mandira Parichalana Committee’ has been started.
“No fraud or any illegal activity related to land of Mahaprabhu will be tolerated. Our aim is to ensure transparency in any sale or leasing out of the land,” he said.
Excluding this case, there are 974 cases filed under Shri Jagannath Temple Act, 1955 related to encroachment of Lord Jagannath’s land in different tehsils of the state.
According to official records, 60,426.943 acre of land registered in the name of Mahaprabhu Jagannath Bije have been identified in 24 districts.
Of this, the SJTA has the final record of rights (RoR) over 38,061.892 acre. In six other states, there are 395.252 acre land in the name of Lord Jagannath.