BENGALURU: It’s just not revenue land that land sharks have encroached upon. The real estate mafia is also grabbing Muzrai land across the state, encroaching upon temple properties. Muzrai land have no protection and most of the temples do not even have proper documents, RTC or land maps.
The Muzrai Department has classified temples into A, B and C categories based on the revenue they generate. As many as 34,559 temples come under the ambit of the Muzrai Department, of which 175 are Class-A (with annual revenue of over Rs 25 lakh), 163 are Class-B (annual income between Rs 5-25 lakh) and 34,221 are Class-C (annual income of less than Rs 5 lakh.
The Hindu Religious Institutions And Charitable Endowments Department has now taken up survey of 206 temples that fall under Category A, 203 temples under Category B and those under Category C in a bid to protect Muzrai land from encroachers.
So far, the survey has covered 339 temples across the state and has revealed that they possess 2,651 acres of land. Out of this, 847 acres have been encroached. This means, that about 35-40 per cent of Muzrai land has been encroached.
A committee was formed under the chairmanship of Deputy Commissioner in every district for conducting the land survey last year. The government has given clear instructions to the authorities concerned that they should conduct survey of every temple, protect Muzrai land, and take up necessary action in documenting and surveying the land. After the survey, the documents should be submitted to the department. Wherever the survey has been completed, the local authorities are supposed to take action to clear the encroachments.
A separate letter has been sent to the state’s 227 tahsildars in this regard. Apart from the A and B category temples, the Muzrai department directed the DCs to list out the total area of land under local bodies like the town municipal corporations, municipal councils and city municipal corporations.