Till now, temple trusts could use their land only for farming activites

Mumbai: Continuing with its move to use unutilised land to boost its land bank, the State government has decided to open up massive tracts held by temple trusts. The State Cabinet on Tuesday amended existing laws, allowing transfer of Devasthan Inams land held by individuals and 4,000 temple trusts, including the ones at Shirdi, Siddhivinayak, Pandharpur and Mahalaxmi in Kolhapur.

The cabinet amended Section 6 of the Hyderabad Atiyat Inquiries Act, 1952 to allow sale, transfer and development of such land for public purpose, education and health purposes. As per the earlier law, trusts can only farm on their land and use the revenue generated for temple maintenance.

The government has been on a land-unlocking spree over the past three years to make land available for infrastructure projects. The State Revenue Department has proposed 74 provisions to ease sale, transfer and ease of doing business around land.

While the latest is the amendment of the Hyderabad Atiyat Inquiries Act, 1952, it has already done away with the need for permissions to change the use of land for non-agricultural purposes under the Development Plan (DP). Since 2016, one doesn’t have to approach the District Collector for this. Also, non-agriculturists can now acquire agricultural land without the District Collector’s approval, following the amendment to the Maharashtra Tenancy and Agricultural Land Act, 1948.

Principal Secretary (Revenue) Manu Kumar Srivastava said, “Most of our decisions have been taken to enhance ease of doing business. The idea is to make it simple to buy, transfer, purchase and gift land in the State. We have submitted 75 proposals to the cabinet, and are way ahead of other departments in bringing reforms.”

The cabinet decision to amend the Act and other laws governing temple lands is based on recommendations by a seven-member committee, formed in 2016 to prepare a status report of the State’s religious landscape. The government has already amened the Revenue Act, 1966 to curtail alleged illegalities by charity trusts. A PIL in the Bombay High Court in 2016 had claimed that nearly 8,000 acres of temple land have been lost to encroachment and the land mafia over the years, because sale and transaction of devasthan land was illegal.