‘Want to sell temple land crop? Produce deity’s Aadhaar’
KANPUR: A priest in Uttar Pradesh’s Banda district was in a bind after the Aadhaar cards of “gods” were sought if he wanted to sell crops grown on land belonging to a temple.
The unusual situation came to light after the caretaker priest of the Ram Janki temple in Attara tehsil’s Kurhara village in Banda arrived at the government mandi to sell the crops grown on the temple land. It was then that he was asked to produce the Aadhaar card of the deity in whose name the land was registered. The seven-hectare land is registered in name of the deity, in this case Ram and Janki.
Mahant Ramkumar Dass, the priest and chief caretaker of the temple, said he wanted to sell 100 quintals of wheat in a government mandi (market). He had done the online registration with the help of others.
When it came to actual sale, he was asked to produce the Aadhaar card of the land owner—the deities. “The registration was cancelled as I could not produce the Aadhaar card, where do I get Aadhaar of Bhagwan (God)?” he asked.
He said he spoke to the SDM Saurabh Shukla. “He told me the registration cannot be done without Aadhaar; that is why it has been cancelled by his office,” he said.
Last year, he said he sold 150 quintals of produce at the government mandi. He said he has been selling the produce for the last several years, but never faced a situation like this.
District supply officer Govind Upadhyaya said the rules were clear that produce from mutts and temple could not be bought. The purchase policy did not have any such provision either, he said, adding earlier “khatauni” (land records) were admissible but now registration had become compulsory. And for registration, one must have the Aadhaar card of the person on whose name the land was registered. SDM Shukla said the Mahant was not asked to produce the Aadhaar card of the deity, but he was explained the process. “The policy has been decided at the government level and purchase was being done on the basis of that policy,” he said.
But Dass is worried: “How are we to meet the expenses and get our food if we cannot sell the crops in the mandi?”
No option in sight, he said, he would have to sell the produce to the “aarathiyas” (commission agents) at a pittance.