As part of the efforts to protect temples and its properties, the DMK government has retrieved nearly 4,500 acres of properties worth around Rs 4,200 crores belonging to various temples managed by the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) department after assuming office in May 2021.
To ensure transparency in administration of temples and properties, the government has also undertaken a massive exercise to record the geo-coordinates of temple lands and prepare a digital land resources database, which has so far covered 1.08 lakh of the total 4.78 lakh acres of land owned by temples that are under the control of HR&CE.
The exercise, which began last year using Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS), is being done using rover equipment and along with the measurement work of temple lands, pegging of cement pillars in the boundary and bends of the fields.
Data shared by the government in the Assembly says the HR & CE, since May 2021, has retrieved 4,491 acres of encroached temple lands worth Rs 4,236 crores. The lands were retrieved as part of a major drive launched by the government to clear temple lands of encroachment, to effectively bust a slew of campaigns that wanted the temples to be freed of government control, including the one launched by yoga guru Jaggi Vasudev.
“These lands were donated to temples or bought by the temple administration by kings and several people over the centuries. Our aim was to ensure that they are retrieved and given back to the respective temples. We believe in the philosophy that the temple's land is for the temple and God,"HR & CE minister P K Sekarbabu told DH.
Sekarbabu, a staunch believer in a party that professes rationalism, said once the land is retrieved from the encroachers, the HR&CE department erects a fence over the property and installs a board with details of the land and the temple which owns it. The department then leases out the land or allows people to take it on rent for various purposes, generating more revenue for the respective temples.
“The money received through leasing or renting the property or land that was retrieved from encroachment is transferred to the temple account,” Sekarbabu added.
The HR&CE’s drive is not just an administrative process but also a political move by Chief Minister M K Stalin whose party, DMK, is often accused of being “anti-Hindu.” The concerted efforts by the DMK also comes at a time when a slew of petitions regarding “mismanagement of temples” under HR&CE are being heard by the Madras High Court.
As many as 44,121 temples in Tamil Nadu come under the HR & CE department which manages and controls them.