Jagannath Temple at Puri owns 60,426 acres of land in Odisha

The Jagannath Temple at Puri owns 60,426 acres of land in Odisha. Law Minister Pratap Jena informed this in a written reply to separate questions in the Assembly.

The Minister also said the 12th-century temple at Puri also has 395.25 acres of landed properties in six other states. Maximum 322.93 acres of land is in West Bengal followed by 28.21 acres in Maharashtra, 25.11 acres in Madhya Pradesh, 17.02 acres in Andhra Pradesh, 1.70 acres in Chhattisgarh and 0.27 acre in Bihar.

Stating that land of Lord Jagannath is spread over 24 of 30 districts in the State, the Minister said out of 60,426.94 acres identified in the State, the temple administration could prepare final Record of Rights (RoR) of 34,206.73 acres.

Govt has already filed 386 encroachment cases in different tehsils of the State to free it from illegal possession of people and institutions.

Besides, the Minister said the Jagannath temple administration has sold 341.30 acres of land and recovered about Rs 10.64 crores. The amount from the land sale has been deposited in the temple corpus fund, Jena said and added that steps are being taken to dispose of more such land after their recovery.

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