TNI Bureau: Taking note on reports that Odisha Government plans to sell 35000 acres land belonging to Lord Jagannath, the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) today clarified that this is a complete distortion of facts and is blatantly false and motivated.
The SJTA took to Twitter to said that, “The lands, which are occupied or are under the 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 the year 2003”.
“The objective of the Unified Policy was to protect the 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”, the SJTA stated in its clarification.
The SJTA further stated that. “It is important to note that 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”.
Decisions regarding the allotment of land for such public benefit infrastructure projects to the Government and others is taken by the Jagannath Temple Committee, SJTA said.
It is again reiterated that the reporting that 35,000 acres of land of Shree Jagannatha Mahaprabhu will be sold, is totally false & motivated. We urge the people of Odisha & millions of devotees of Lord Jagannatha to not be misguided by such malicious lies & false reporting, SJTA added.