Muzrai survey of Karnataka temples detects vulnerability: No land records

The Muzrai department's initiative to survey temple lands under its purview is getting stymied by a lack of proper revenue documentation, leading to much hand-wringing among authorities. 

Without documentation, it is difficult to identify the extent of land belonging to the temples, making them vulnerable to encroachments and protracted legal disputes.

The department is finally coming face-to-face with the extent of the problem during the ongoing survey.

Sources in the Muzrai department told DH that there are 34,563 temples that have been divided into A, B and C categories across the state — 205 under A, 193 under B and 34,165 under C.

Of these, the department, over the last two years, has been able to survey and mark boundaries of 6,180 temples — 101 under category A, 92 under B and 5,987 under C.

"We are stuck at this point. Ninety percent of the temples do not have proper revenue documents. As a result, we are unable to stop encroachments," one official lamented. 

Even though the Deputy Commissioners have been repeatedly directed by the Revenue Department to set the documentation straight, there has been no progress, the official added. 

Highlighting some of the issues, the official explained: "For some temples, there is no khata in the name of the temple. In other cases, though there is khata in the name of a temple, there is no separate new survey number assigned."

Continuing, the official also said that in "a few cases in Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Malnad regions, the names of the hereditary lessees are entered as joint holders along with the temple, and temples not having solo ownership cannot be considered for survey". 

Former chief secretary TM Vijay Bhaskar said this is a persistent problem which needs to be addressed. "A temple right next to the Chief Secretary's house had come under litigation as owing to a lack of records, a private entity was claiming ownership. This was later fought in the court," he recalled.

One way to address this, said Bhaskar, is to hand over the task to the temple management committee to put together the documents or create a committee of temple devotees.

Placing the onus on a government department alone to gather documents for more than 30,000 temples will not be practical, he said.   

Rajender Kataria, Principal Secretary, Revenue Department, acknowledged the "serious issue of document updation".

"We have asked the officials concerned at the district level to update the documents and they are in the process of collating information. Once this is done, we must do prospective planning with the available land for the betterment of temples, including creating infrastructure for devotees such as parking facilities."