The Bihar government has directed all the 38 district magistrates to furnish details of registered and unregistered public temples and Dharamshala’s (rest houses) in their respective districts to the Bihar State Religious Trust Council (BSRTC) within two months.

After receiving lists from all nine divisions or commissionerate comprising all the 38 districts, the BSRTC will ask all unregistered public temples and Dharamshala to get themselves registered with the council at the earliest, its chairman Akhilesh Kumar Jain told PTI.

As per the Bihar Hindu Religious Trusts Act, 1950, all public temples and Dharamshala in the state must be registered with the BSRTC, he said.

“The divisional commissioners (DCs) of Magadh, Saran and Kosi, in a recent meeting, assured the BSRTC that they would provide detailed lists of registered and unregistered public temples and Dharamshala in their respective divisions within two months.

“The BSRTC expects the same from other divisional commissioners. It has called for a virtual meeting with the DCs of Darbhanga and Patna in this regard on Feb 11 and 12 respectively,” Jain said.

As per the Bihar Hindu Religious Trusts Act, 1950, once registration is completed, a tax at 4 per cent of the total income of the public temple or Dharamshala has to be paid to the trust annually.

There are roughly around 4,500 registered public temples in the state, of which only 250-300 pay tax to BSRTC. There are around 10,000 registered and unregistered public temples in the state, he said.

“Even temples built by individuals on residential premises but open for the public must get themselves registered with the council. A temple is considered private if only family members of the owner offer prayers there,” he added.