The Tamil Nadu government reclaimed ₹300 crore worth of land belonging to the Vadapalani Murugan Temple in Chennai, which was under the control of encroachers. Sekar Babu, the Minister of HR&CE and Commissioner Kumaraguruparan had looked into the matter after several complaints and secured the property of the temple which had been encroached for 10 years.
The Encroachment
According to reports, the temple owns 5.52 acres of land in Survey Nos. 21/2, 23/1, 25/1, 26/1, in Gandhinagar, Saligramam, Chennai. A portion of this land was leased in 2008 to the Women’s Empowerment Department for the construction of a working women’s hostel on a monthly rent of ₹1 lakh. But, the rent for the place was not paid to the temple properly, and there was a lot of default payments. Other than the land leased out to the women’s hostel, the remaining were occupied by outsiders. They turned them into private parking lots and they were involved in the collection of parking charges. As a result of this, the temple faced huge revenue loss while the private contractors had earned crores out of the property.
Following this steps were taken to reclaim the 5.5 acres of land worth ₹300 crore belonging to Vadapalani Murugan Temple in Gandhinagar, Saligramam, Chennai, which had been in the hands of occupiers for 10 years.
In the presence of the HR&CE Minister Sekar Babu and Commissioner Kumaraguruparan, the police, officials from the Revenue Department and Corporation removed the encroachments and handed over the place to the temple. Among those present were Haripriya, Joint Commissioner of HR&CE Department, Chennai, and Chitradevi, Assistant Commissioner, Temples.
Reclamation
Minister Sekar Babu, who inspected the removal of encroachments, said that Chief Minister the occupied land belonging to the temple has been reclaimed. He added that Chief Minister Stalin has ordered to reform all departments in the government. He said that the temple land of Vadapalani Temple had been encroached and turned into a parking lot through which private contractors made lots of money. He also said CM Stalin has ordered that action be taken, regardless of who occupies the space owned by the HR&CE Department. He said that steps will be taken to reactivate the closed women’s hostel elsewhere.
“As far as the HR&CE Department is concerned, it operates with the utmost transparency. So, the revenue for the temples will increase gradually. A scheme is being implemented by HR&CE that allows for those staying on temple lands to pay rent and become tenants. No one can claim ownership of the land owned by the temple. At present, the reclaimed land will be planned for the poor and the common people in consultation with the community,” he added.
He said that leaders of the AIADMK – Edappadi K. Palaniswami and O. Panneerselvam, should also take action against those encroaching temple property. He added that they should realize it is because of such elements in party that they lost elections. He said that leaders of all parties should warn encroachers who are sitting on temple property to exit.
He also warned that politically powerful persons encroaching temple lands should immediately exit or face the consequences of law.
Currently, HR&CE Minister Sekar Babu, has said that this is just a trailer and the main picture is yet to come. However, Hindu devotees say that there are many DMK leaders upto the top rung who are squatting on temple lands. Temple activists say that there are many within in the HR&CE department itself who are corrupt and aid such encroachments.
Recently, the Madras High Court had asked the HR&CE department about 47000 acres of temple land that has gone missing from government records.
(With inputs from Dinamalar)
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