Bhubaneswar: Taking note of the reports that the Odisha government is planning to sell 35,272 acres of land of Lord Jagannath in six states, the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) clarified that the report totally false and motivated.
SJTA Chief Administrator Krishan Kumar, in a series of tweets, said that with ulterior motive ‘it has been falsely reported that 35,000 acres of land of Lord Jagannath is being sold. This is a complete distortion of facts and is blatantly false and motivated’.
He said ‘the lands, which are occupied or are under possession of various persons since long but belongs to Shree Jagannatha Mahaprabhu, are being settled by Temple Committee as per the “Unified Policy”, framed for the purpose in year 2003 with an objective of protection of land of Lord Jagannatha. This policy also aimed to bring transparency & uniformity in the processes to be followed for settlement of land to the eligible persons.’
“From 2001 to 2010, 291 acres of land was settled and from 2011 to 2021, 96 acres of land have been 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 and added that ‘decisions regarding the allotment of land for such public benefit infrastructure projects to Government and others is taken by the Jagannath Temple Committee.’
“It is again reiterated that the reporting 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 Jagannath to not be misguided by such malicious lies and false reporting,” added the SJTA Chief.
