Temple land worth Rs 1,367 crore retrieved in Kancheepuram

CHENNAI: Right from the day DMK took over the government, the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) department has been one of the busiest departments which has been committed to removing encroachments in temple properties and retrieving the properties back to the government. Though the department retrieved temple lands across the State, Kancheepuram district accounts for the most as in the last one year, 140.18 acres of temple land worth Rs 1,367.37 crore was retrieved.

According to the data available with the HR&CE department, the total value of the land retrieved by the HR&CE department from encroachers amounts to Rs 2,566.94 crore and in the total value more than 50 per cent is from Kancheepuram. It was mainly due to the large number of buildings located in prime areas. A total of 44,324.5 square feet of buildings attached to various temples were retrieved from the district.

Chennai district, which is split into two, is in the second and third place with a total of Rs 632 crore worth retrieved properties, highest being the Rs 250 crore worth property of Murugan Temple in Vadapalani. As far as Chennai is concerned a total of 175 encroachers were removed from the temple land.

However, only in three districts the ponds attached to temples were retrieved. In Tiruchirapalli district, 74,052 square feet of Temple ponds were retrieved whereas in Cuddalore district 12,387 square feet and in Nagapattinam district 1,828 square feet of ponds were retrieved.

Apart from the removal of encroachments and retrieval of properties, HR&CE department is also involved in cross verifying the temple land with the documents available with the Revenue department. Through the exercise, 592.69 acres of temple land were retrieved by the department through introducing changes in "Chitta" (a land document). Among the total of 94 properties retrieved, 45 properties were in Tiruvannamalai district, measuring 320.62 acres.

A higher official attached to HR&CE department, on request of anonymity, said that so far the HR&CE department has retrieved immovable properties of 133 temples, which were registered as individual properties. Also, the department is using advanced technologies like Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) Rovers to measure the temple lands, said the official, who also added that in the coming days HR&CE department will retrieve more lands that were occupied by private players.