Bhubaneswar: Shree Jagannath Temple in Puri owns over 60,426 acres of land in Odisha, and nearly 400 acres in six other states, Law Minister Prithiviraj Harichandan said in the Assembly Saturday.
Harichandan said this while replying to a written question of BJD MLA Sudarshan Haripal in the Assembly.
The 12th-century shrine in Puri is governed by the Law Department as per the Shree Jagannath Temple Act, 1956.
While 60,426.943 acres of land in the name of Lord Jagannath are located across 24 districts of Odisha, another 395.252 acres of temple land were traced in six states – West Bengal (322.930 acres), Maharashtra (28.21 acres), Madhya Pradesh (25.11 acres), Andhra Pradesh (17.02 acres), Chhattisgarh (1.7 acres) and Bihar (0.27 acres).
The minister said that the revised land records for 38,061.792 acres are currently with the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA), Puri.
He said that verification exercises have also revealed multiple instances of illegal occupation of temple land. A total of 974 cases have been registered under the Shri Jagannath Temple Act for eviction of 169.86167 acres of encroached land across seven districts of the state, he said.
The minister assured the Assembly that steps are being taken to secure temple property.