GIS technique to identify temple lands in TN

“To identify the temple land precisely, GIS is used to mark the exact coordinates of the land. The land borders would be marked with the coordinates available, so that any occupation of land could be prevented in the future,” said Sevur Ramachandran, HR& CE Minister, at a meeting held in Chennai.

Several Hindu outfits, who have long been demanding that temples should be freed from the control of HR& CE department, had raised complaints that large tracks of temple lands were encroached. To counter these allegations, the HR& CE department has come out with a scientific solution to stop the encroachment of land attached to temples that are under the control of the department.

“A new software named Tamil Nilam (Tamil land) was developed recently by the department so that the details of the temple lands can be uploaded in the software. The information is currently being uploaded and will be completed after identification of all the land,” said Minister Ramachandran.

He said that along with GIS, the technology of Global Positioning System (GPS) would also be used to identify and mark 44,000 temples in the State. All these temples are more than 100 years old, Ramachandran added.

He further said that the web-based ‘petition processing portal’ had begun functioning since Wednesday. Using this, petitions related to HR& CE department submitted to the Chief Minister’s Special Cell and to other Ministers would be received in the portal and swift action would be taken.

Using the web portal, the petitioners would be able to track their complaints. “The petitioners can track the status of their petitions and action taken on the petitions will be informed to them through SMS to the phone numbers given in the petition,” said the Minister.