Even as the Jagannath Temple at Puri owns landed property of more than 57,000 acres spreading across different districts of the State, it only gets annual share from less than 7,000 acres as greater part of this is under the control of encroachers.
The Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) has managed to obtain record of rights (RoR) of land measuring only 27,711 acres and 274 decimal out of the total temple land of 57,181 acres and 249 decimal, said sources adding that SJTA is yet to obtain RoR of more than 30,000 acre of land.
The SJTA is getting owner share from 11, 850 share croppers who cultivate 6,638 acre and 763 decimal of temple land. The revenue earned from this portion of temple land is too meager, said a source in know of the matter.
According to records, there are as many as 400 acres of land located across six other States except Odisha which were donated by devotees to the temple.
Sources said while more than 150 land disputes are pending for disposal before courts of several Tehsildars across the State, encroachers are happily enjoying the land under their possession. From 2005-06 till date the SJTA has earned more than Rs 7.30 crore by disposing of nearly 200 acres of temple land.
In many places, unscrupulous encroachers are happily enjoying the forest produce and minerals extracted from temple land in the State.
In spite of having such abundance of landed property, the SJTA has to fall back upon the State administration and donations given by devotees for running the show. Even as the Union Government through the ASI bears the expenses of repair and maintenance of the thirteenth century shrine, the SJTA with support from State Government meets the expenditure required for observing various rituals and festivities in the temple.
It is indeed a matter of great shame that no one has shown urgency to retrieve landed property of the temple being enjoyed by many an encroacher, said members of civil society of Puri who lamented that even landed properties belonging to many deities across the State, including lord lingaraj of Bhubaneswar, are under control of such encroachers.