PremiumAccording to Bihar Hindu Religious Trusts Act, 1950, the state government will soon start the process of fencing all registered temples in the state to prevent the land of registered temples and mutts from encroachment.
Bihar government has asked the authorities of all 38 districts to ensure the registration of around 4,000 unregistered temples, mutts, and trusts within three months in the state. The announcement has been made by Bihar Law Minister Shamim Ahmad, according to the news agency PTI.
He said that large-scale irregularities have been found as priests of many temples and mutts in the state have transferred or sold lands.
According to Bihar Hindu Religious Trusts Act, 1950, the state government will soon start the process of fencing all registered temples in the state to prevent the land of registered temples and mutts from encroachment, he said, adding that all public temples/mutts, trusts, and dharamshalas must be registered with BSBRT in Bihar.
“Despite repeated reminders by the authority concerned, there are still 4000 unregistered public temples, mutts, and trusts that are running in almost all districts in the state. They must get themselves registered with the Bihar State Board of Religious Trust (BSBRT) within three months. I am sending a letter to all district magistrates to ensure that all such unregistered bodies in their respective districts are registered within three months", the minister told PTI.
He further stated that the Bihar government will be forced to take steps if unregistered temples, mutts, and trusts fail to get themselves registered within the stipulated period, as per PTI reports.
“If required a certain portion of MLA Area Development Fund can be used for fencing some registered temples and trusts if they do not have enough money. In that situation MLAs will have to give a list of registered public temples and trusts that require fencing of their respective areas to the department concerned," he added.
As per BSBRT data, Bihar has a total number of 3,002 registered temples in the state, with more than 18,500 acres of land.
The latest data received from 35 districts and compiled by BSBRT revealed that there are around 4,055 unregistered temples and mutts in the state and they together own more than 4400 acres, PTI reported.
“As per the data received from districts administration, a maximum number of unregistered temples/mutts are in Muzaffarpur (433), Samastipur (272), Darbhanga (259), East Champaran (226), Bhagalpur (210), Vaishali (209), Sitamarhi (203), Rohtash (210), Bhojpur (197), Begusarai (170), Nalanda (159) and Saran (154) etc," the BSBRT data says.
(With PTI inputs)