2,000 villagers protest transfer of temple lands to police dept

Of the 11 acres belonging to the two centuries old ancient ‘Mariamman’ temple at Andipalayam, the police department has bought around eight acres from the HR & CE department and works are underway to construct new office buildings and residential quarters.

The villagers came to know of the land transfer only when works commenced at the place last month. Police were also deployed in the land as a security measure. Since then, the villagers took to protests, while Hindu outfits too opposed the acquisition of the land by the police department.

Meanwhile, more than 2,000 people from seven villages resorted to a road roko on Tirupur-Mangalam Road near Periandipalayam ‘pirivu’ resulting in traffic disruption for several hours.

After talks with police officials led by city police Commissioner K Karthikeyan and SP Disha Mittal, the villagers moved to the side of the road and continued the protest till evening.

Hindu Munnani state secretary J Kishore Kumar said that they have planned to take up a legal battle to retrieve the land from possession of the police department. Members of various other Hindu outfits also threatened to intensify their protest.