Bihar govt makes it must to register over 4,000 temples

New Delhi: Amid the allegations of irregularities in maintenance of the lands allotted to temples, mutts and trusts, the Bihar government has asked the authorities of all 38 districts in the state to ensure the registration of around 4,000 unregistered temples, mutts and trusts within three months.

According to Bihar Law Minister Shamim Ahmad, large-scale irregularities have been found as priests of many temples and mutts in the state have transferred or sold land.

The Bihar government has also decided to start the process of fencing all registered temples in the state to prevent the land of registered temples and mutts from encroachment.

The minister further said that all public temples/mutts, trusts and dharamshalas in Bihar must be registered with Bihar State Board of Religious Trust (BSBRT) according to the Bihar Hindu Religious Trusts Act, 1950 and registration is mandatory to protect the properties, including land, of temples from unauthorized claims.

"The state government will be forced to take steps if unregistered temples, mutts and trusts fail to get themselves registered within the stipulated period," he added. "If required, a certain portion of MLA Area Development Fund may also 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 said. As per the BSBRT data, the total number of registered temples is around 3002 in the state and they own more than 18,500 acres of land, while there are around 4,055 unregistered temples and mutts in the state and they own more than 4,400 acres of land.

As per data received from districts administration, maximum 433 unregistered temples/mutts are in Muzaffarpur.