Puri: Soon after the Odisha government came under fire for its plans to sell over 35,000 acre of land belonging to Lord Jagannath, the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) on Thursday clarified that the report is totally false and motivated.
In a series of tweets, SJTA Chief Administrator clarified on the issue and urged the people of Odisha and millions of devotees of Lord Jagannath to not get misguided by such ‘malicious lies and false reporting.’
https://youtu.be/LPm0C6M3r1U
The statement of the SJTA, however, contradicts the information provided by Law Minister Pratap Jena in the Assembly. Jena had earlier informed the State Assembly that the process to sell 34,876.983 acre land of Lord Jagannath in the State and 395.252 acre in six other states has already been initiated.
On the other hand, Srimandir chief administrator Krishan Kumar in SJTA Twitter handle stated that ‘it has been falsely reported that 35,000 acre of land of Lord Jagannatha is being sold. This is a complete distortion of facts and is blatantly false and motivated.’
He said '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'.
“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,” the SJTA chief stated.
He further informed that decisions regarding the allotment of land for such public benefit infrastructure projects to the government and others are taken by the Jagannath Temple Committee.
“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,” he added.
Meanwhile, the clarification of the Srimandir administration has made the issue more complicated. Questions are being raised as to who is actually telling the truth, State Law Minister or the SJTA.
The Opposition termed it a conspiracy of the government and started preparations to counter it. Condemning the move, BJP national vice-president Baijayant Panda stressed for raising voice against it.
"This Odisha govt plan is causing deep anguish across the state. This relic of the colonial-era's bizarre perversion of "secularism," where govt controls the places of worship of one religion in India (& only one), is long past its sell-by date. Please speak up. Now," Panda tweeted.
Taking to Twitter, leader of Opposition Pradipta Naik also termed the statement of Pratap Jena as unfortunate and said the State government does not authority on the land of Lord Jagannath.
Congress MLA Suresh Routray said, "We will strongly protest the conspiracy of the government to sell the land of Lord Jagannath. The lands were donated by devotees to Lord Jagannath, who are you to sell it."
Speaking on the issue, BJP State general secretary Lekhashree Samantsinghar said, "The State government has crossed all limits in insulting Lord Jagannath."
Reacting to the allegations, BJD MLA Soumyaranjan Patnaik said, "If the lands are being sold to raise funds for development of institutions associated with Lord Jagannath, we should think over it and give suggestions."
(Edited By Pradeep Singh)