Tamil Nadu recovers 1,200 acres of encroached temple land in one year

HR & CE department has also launched a massive drive to collect rent from tenants who have occupied buildings owned by various temples

Nearly 1,200 acres of properties worth Rs 2,500 crore belonging to temples managed by the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR & CE) department in Tamil Nadu have been cleared of encroachments after the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) assumed office in May last year.

Data shared by the government in the Assembly says 1,184.13 acres of land, 467 grounds of vacant plots, 47.08 grounds of buildings and 38.18 grounds of temple tanks bunds were cleared of encroachments and restored from May 7, 2021, to March 31, 2022. The government said it is estimated that these properties are worth Rs.2,566.94 crore.

The clearing of encroachments on temple lands and restoring them to the religious institutions are part of a major drive that the government launched to infuse transparency in the functioning of temples. “These lands were being encroached by individuals for a very long time. Some of the properties were under encroachment for decades together. We not just cleared encroachments but also restored the land to the respective temples,” a senior official told DH.

The government is also involved in giving tenancy rights to the encroachers who are part of group encroachments of temple lands, using them for residential purposes, and have been living there continuously for “a long period.”

The official said the government have engaged the services of 55 retired officers and surveyors to identify and retrieve the encroachments, speed up the collection of arrears of fair rent and lease amount and co-ordinate with the Revenue Department.

Besides clearing properties of encroachments, the HR & CE department has also launched a massive drive to collect rent from tenants who have occupied buildings and other properties owned by various temples.

The department has so far measured 36,976 acres of land in 10,122 survey numbers/subdivision numbers in 221 villages as part of the process to map them using Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS). The survey 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 are also undertaken, HR & CE Minister P K Sekarbabu said.

“After the completion of temple lands survey work in villages, field measurement sketches are prepared by the concerned surveyors using the Collabland Software,” he added.

The steps by the HR & CE department are 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.” HR & CE, considered a “low-profile” department, began to hit headlines with the government deciding to go digital with all details on properties and lands owned by temple and putting them online.

The government is also restoring land in the name of religious institutions that were wrongly transferred in the name of individuals during the implementation of Updating Registry Scheme (UDR Scheme).

“From 07.05.2021 to 31.03.2022 orders have been obtained for 720.83 acres of land belonging to 133 temples and the lands were retrieved and restored to the respective temples. Accordingly, 592.69 acres of land belonging to 94 temples have been restored to the name of the temples,” the official said.