Poor woman beats Satyam’s Raju in temple donations

You thought Satyam’s Ramalinga Raju donating two tons of gold to different temples was big? Well, it sure was. But a poor woman from Orissa has, relatively, donated a bigger amount. The old woman has donated her entire lifetime’s saving — seven acres of land — to the Lord Jagannath temple in Puri.

Bhuinsuta Bhoi, 65, made the donation out of “love” for the temple. The pious woman from Chichinda village in Bargarh district, around 500 km from here, said none of her family members would lay claim to the property. She has made a “will” to this effect which she presented to the temple trust on Wednesday.

“On my own, I have decided to donate the entire land property to the temple trust,’ she said.

Bhoi made the will in favour on Lord Jagannath in April, 2008. But she did not tell her near and dear ones at that time.

She took the interim period to convince her family members of her decision to donate the land property to the Puri temple. On Wednesday, she came to Puri with her family members and met the temple trust officials.

The temple’s earnings have crossed Rs 100 crore this year, trust officials said. The trust has land in several states.

“We have initiated steps to recover all land lying scattered throughout India. We have also initiated talks with different state governments,” said Sri Jagannath Temple administration officer, SN Rath, adding that Lord Jagannath had 67,000 acres of land in different parts of the country. Most of it is in Orissa, about 400 acres is in other parts of the country, Rath said.