The Odisha government has initiated the process to sell over 35,000 acres of land belonging to Lord Jagannath of Puri. The move is aimed at enhancing the Rs 650 crore corpus fund of the 12th century temple to Rs 1,000 crore by 2023.

Making a statement in the Assembly in response to a question by BJP legislator Mohan Majhi, law minister Pratap Jena said: “The process to sell the land has been initiated on the recommendation of a committee formed under the chairmanship of former governor B.D. Sharma. The step to sell 35,272.235 acres of the temple land has been taken with the approval of the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA).”

Jena added: “We have so far identified 60,426.943 acres of land belonging to the Shree Jagannath temple. Of this, 395.252 acres is located outside Odisha in states like Bengal, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh. Steps are being taken to recover the land and regularise the land records.”

According to Jagannath temple officials many devotees had donated land in the name of the Lord as a last wish. But over the years, people have encroached on such land in many areas. While land in the name of Lord Jagannath is spread over 24 districts of Odisha, 395.252 acres have been found in six other states.

According to the Jagannath temple’s official records, 17.02 acres is in Andhra Pradesh, while 322.93 acres is in Bengal and 28.218 acres in Maharashtra. Similarly, 25.11 acres is located in Madhya Pradesh, 0.274 acres in Bihar and 1.70 acres in Chhattisgarh.

“We are in touch with the respective district collectors to get back these lands. The land will be sold and money earned from this will be put in a fixed deposit in the Lord’s name. We have planned to reach the target of a Rs 1,000 crore corpus in the name of the Lord by 2023,” said a senior temple official.

Those in possession of the land in Lord Jagannath’s name for more than 30 years, 20 years and 12 years, will get the opportunity to record it in their names by paying Rs 6 lakh, Rs 9 lakh and Rs 15 lakh per acre respectively.

Meanwhile, chairman of the Shree Jagannath Temple Management Committee and Puri King, Gajapati Dibya Singh Deb, has spoken to non-resident Odias and sought their cooperation for the overall development of the shrine. The Odisha government has been working on transforming Puri into a world heritage city at an estimated cost of over Rs 3,000 crore.