Puri: The Endowment department, assigned to look after affairs at temples, mutts and other Hindu religious institutions in the state, is facing an acute shortage of staff and infrastructure.
The poor condition of the Endowment department has become a stumbling block in razing encroachments on the landed properties of temples and other religious institutions.
As many as 450 mutts and 17,472 temples in the state have been put under the jurisdiction of the Endowment department. The department is headed by a commissioner, based in Bhubaneswar. Besides, the department has four zonal offices at Cuttack, Berhampur, Sambalpur and Bhubaneswar.
It is learnt that altogether 116 posts of the department out of 190 are lying vacant.
The government is yet to appoint three section officers, 11 senior assistants, 14 junior assistants, five divisional inspectors, 19 endowment inspectors, five auditors and 36 Class-IV employees at the department.
Moreover, the posts of several assistant engineers, legal officers and vigilance inspectors of the department are also lying vacant, sources said.
“There is a backlog of at least 4,000 cases at the Endowment commissioner’s office owing to staff crunch. Moreover, the commissioner is yet to reconstitute the trust boards of several shrines in the state. The department is yet to have a website of its own,” said a source.
Sources, meanwhile, claimed that district collectors were yet to implement orders of the Endowment commissioner directing them to reclaim temple land from encroachers. “The commissioner has ordered the district administrations to reclaim temple land while disposing 3,989 cases. However, they are yet to comply with the orders,” added the source.
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