Reports of Odisha govt plan to sell 35,000 acres of Lord Jagannath land false, clarifies Jagannath Temple admin

The Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) on Thursday clarified that the report that the Odisha government planned to sell over 35,000 acres of land belonging to Lord Jagannath was completely false.

SJTA Chief Administrator Krishan Kumar said the report on the sale of Jagannath land on a massive scale was "false" and "motivated."

He said, "the lands, which are occupied or are under the possession of various persons since long but belong to Shree Jagannatha Mahaprabhu are being settled by Temple Committee as per the 'Unified Policy' framed for the purpose in the year 2003 with an objective of protection of the land of Lord Jagannatha."

"This policy also aimed to bring transparency and uniformity in the processes to be followed for settlement of land to eligible persons."

"From 2001 to 2010, a total of 291 acres of land was settled and from 2011 to 2021, a total of 96 acres of land was settled. These have been settled for the benefit of the public mostly in the form of schools, medical college, roads, etc," the SJTA chief stated.

He said decisions regarding the allotment of land for such public benefit infrastructure projects to the government and others are taken by the Jagannath Temple Committee.

"It is again reiterated that reports that 35,000 acres of land of Shree Jagannatha Mahaprabhu will be sold is totally false and motivated. We urge the people of Odisha and millions of devotees of Lord Jagannatha not to be misguided by such malicious lies and false reporting," he said.

The clarification from SJTA came after the news, quoting Law Minister Pratap Jena in response to a question by BJP legislator Mohan Majhi in Assembly regarding the State government's move to sell 35,272.235 acres of the temple land of Jagannath Temple.

( With inputs from ANI )