BHUBANESWAR: The state government on Saturday said a uniform land policy will be ready in three months time to streamline the management of land belonging to Shree Jagannath temple at Puri.
This was informed to the Assembly by Law Minister Prithviraj Harichandan while responding to a query from BJP MLA Durga Charan Tanti.
The minister said that the proposed policy will deal with existing land disputes and streamline the management of land owned by Shree Jagannath Mahaprabhu, both inside and outside the state. All disputes of the temple land will be settled within the next two years, he said.
The minister said that a separate policy for Mahaprabhu’s land was framed in 2003. This policy was amended in 2019 but further modifications are needed. After these amendments, a new policy will be prepared and placed before the state cabinet within the next three months.
Harichandan said 60,426.943 acres of Shree Jagannath temple land spread across 24 districts in the state have been identified out of which, revised title deeds for 38,061.829 acres have been received at the office of the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA). The revision of the records of rights (ROR) or title deeds for the remaining 22,000 acres is also in progress. Another 395.252 acres of land of Mahaprabhu in six states outside Odisha have been identified, he added.
The minister informed that the temple administration has identified 169.861 acres of land under encroachment in seven districts of the state. Eviction process is on to reclaim the illegally occupied properties by filing 974 cases in the respective tehsildar courts under Section 16A(I) of the Shree Jagannath Temple Act, 1955.