The Waqf Board sent a notice regarding a land given to the Garibnath temple located in Muzaffarpur, Bihar. This land was allotted to the temple by the government. This land was given to the temple for the sale of Naivedyam Prasad. However, the Waqf Board took exception to this and lodged a complaint. The land in dispute is in front of a mosque.
This entire matter is related to the Garibnath Shiv Temple located in Mushahari, Muzaffarpur. Lakhs of devotees from Bihar and other places come to the temple throughout the year. This crowd increases manifold in the month of Sawan, Kanwar is brought from many districts and offered here. Due to this there is shortage of space in the temple. In such a situation, there was less space for selling Naivedyam Prasad.
Secretary of Garibnath Temple Trust, NK Sinha said, “In view of this problem, an IAS officer, who was the head of the temple trust, had asked the DM of Muzaffarpur to allot space for the sale of Naivedyam Prasad. For this, a 270 square feet piece of land was given outside the temple. This land was allotted temporarily for three months.”
He told OpIndia, “The land is located in front of the mosque and along with it there is some part of Waqf Board land. This land was taken by the temple trust by leaving the land of Waqf Board. However, the people of the mosque took exception to this. He objected to this and filed a case in the Waqf Tribunal.”
NK Sinha told that the land is in the name of Municipal Corporation Muzaffarnagar in the revenue records and that is why it was allotted to us. He said, “The land was to be given to us only for three months and it was lying vacant earlier also but the mosque had a problem as to why this land was being used for the temple.”
Due to a dispute over the land between the Municipal Corporation and the Mosque and Waqf Board, a temporary Naivedyam shop was not built here. Due to this, the sale of Naivedyam has stopped here and now the devotees are facing problems. NK Sinha told that Naivedyam Prasad was arranged for the devotees coming to the temple by Acharya Kunal Kishore, who passed away recently.
He said, “There were two benefits from the sale of Prasad, one was that the devotees got quality Prasad here and on the other hand, the temple earned about ₹ 5 lakh every year from this. But now this entire system has come to a standstill and some other people are coming and setting up shops on the land over which there is a dispute.”
Waqf Tribunal in this case hearing doing. He has also issued a notice in this matter. The Municipal Corporation is responding regarding this. At the same time, lawyers from the temple side will also appear in the tribunal in this matter. NK Sinha has told that the real fight is between Waqf and Municipal Corporation. Now the next hearing regarding this is on January 23, 2025.
Temple priest Anand Shastri has said that the Shivalinga installed here is self-manifested and there is no clear information about how it appeared. He told that many social programs including Mundan, Baby Shower take place inside the temple and most of the Satyanarayan Katha takes place here in Bihar.
