A case has been filed against four persons for mining sand from temple lands and setting up a brick kiln without permission near Bandalur in Thanjavur district.
150 acres of agricultural land in Araseri village belonging to the Bandanallur Pasupatheeswarar temple near Kumbakonam in Thanjavur district was leased directly to the Tamil Nadu Agricultural Cooperative Society (DCFS) through the temple. The cooperative society was closed a few years ago.
Ashok Kumar, who was the executive officer of the Pasupatheeswarar temple, had lodged a complaint with the Bandanallur police last January alleging that some individuals had occupied the place without the permission of the Tamil Nadu Hindu Religious & Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Department.
One individual named Vijendran has set up a brick kiln on 1.87 acres of land owned by the temple in Araseri village. Another 3.94 acres have been encroached by building a structure and a planting coconuts trees.
Similarly, three others namely – Balaguru, Shankar and Pandian – have set up a brick kiln on 1.28 acres, 1.66 acres, 3.16 acres respectively.
Similarly, on the land belonging to the Neykuppai Sundareswarar temple, one Chinnappa mined sand, set up a brick kiln, sold the land and later converted it into a pond. Muthusamy, Mahendran and Samithurai have set up a sand quarry in Neykuppai village belonging to the Abramapuram Brahmapuriswarar temple.
In another case, three persons named Muthusamy, Mahendran and Samithurai have set up a sand quarry in the land belonging to the Abiramapuram Brahmapureeswarar temple in Neykuppai village.
Another individual named Manoharan has reportedly ruined the 27 acres of land belonging to the Neyvasal Tadakapureeswarar temple with a gravel crusher and machinery. Karunanidhi, Murugaraj, Bhuminathan and Samithurai from the same area have encroached on the temple land without any permission.The present Bandanallur Pasupatheeswarar temple executive officer Sundararajan has lodged a complaint regarding this matter.
It has been reported that Manoharan was the former district secretary of the AIADMK. He was also the Chairman of the Thiruppanandal Union Committee and is currently the Organizing Secretary of the Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam.
Earlier in 2018, a person named Venkataraman had filed a case at the Madras High Court about the irregularities happening at the Pasupatheeswarar temple including that of illegal sand mining and brick kilns.
When the matter came up for hearing recently, the two judge bench comprising of Justice Mahadevan and Audikesavulu asked the Executive Officers of the temples to file their response.
(With inputs from Dinamalar)
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