Tamil Nadu - 6,582.81 acres of 1,005 Hindu temples' lands recoovered by the TN govt, July 2019

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Above image: In the neighboring  state of Kerala, encroachment on temple lands has been a  social problem as in TN and the Hindus living here are not happy about misuse of temple properties. One  Swami Bharati Maharaj, one of the litigants in the case, pointed out that a total of 9,877.2 hectares of temple land under the Malabar Devaswom Board (MBD) had been encroached upon  by unscrupulous people who, in tern,  sold  the lands to land mafia operating there just like TN or Maharashtra.  The  Devaswom Minister V.S. Sivakumar  mentioned about the temple land in the State Assembly in 2014. The encroachment  being a big one, it has assumed a complex social problem because getting into the bottom of this rip-off of temple lands is not an easy one. . The Hindus of Kerala are sore about the  careless attitude of the politicians and temple employees.  Like other  Indian states, properties owned by Muslim or Christian places of worship are held under trust by them or by respective communities and are not controlled by the state govt.  The crux of the problem in the case of Hindu temple properties is ' any person' can  chip in and clandestinely secure  title deeds for the temple land, in connivance with the Revenue Department for a good price. ............................

There is a piece of good news for the Hindu devotees and the  large chunk of Hindu population in Tamil Nadu  that are mainly concerned about the safety  and security of thousands of historical Hindu temples, with their valuable  old antique metal idols, etc and vast  temple lands and buildings that have been systematically abused and mismanaged by the govt agency - HR & CE  since 1990.  In July, 2019   HR and CE Minister Sevoor S Ramachandran  informed in the the State Assembly that ''6,582.81 acres of lands belonging to 1,005 temples, wrongly transferred in the names of private persons, were identified and restored to the temples concerned.  Of these lands, 1,023.73 acres of lands belonging to 216 temples, were recovered during the past two years''.   In every govt. dept, there are good people as well as lousy ones  who, with backing from certain corrupt nethas,  mismanage  vast temple  properties in such a way, it is tough to get

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to the bottom of this kind of loot. Their modus operandi is strong and tough to break it. The media people say the law breakers/ culprits  are certain black sheep in the revenue dept. as a result, good officers' voice does not have any effect and they also get the bad rap.   The minister said  “All the assets of the temples which have been encroached, will be recovered soon, overcoming all direct and indirect opposition.”
The temple lands had been encroached upon for the past eight years and the criminal activities went unchecked because of various unpalatable reasons.  With sustained efforts, the  illegal encroachments to the extent of 2,855.36 acres of land, 557 grounds of sites and 250 grounds of buildings belonging to Hindu religious institutions, were  brought back  and repossessed by  respective temples. The total market value of these assets is about whopping  Rs 3,208.42 crore.  Among them  539.39 acres of lands and 87 grounds of plots  were  recovered in the last two years. Preparations are afoot to renovate eight ancient temples at a total cost of Rs 4.58 crore.  As for recovery of 70 grounds from the criminals their market value is Rs 321.30 crore.
https://www.newindianexpress.com/states/tamil-nadu/2019/jul/16/over-6500-acres-of-tamil-nadu-temple-land-restored-2004489.html
https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/10000-ha-of-temple-land-usurped/article7968588.ece
https://www.slideshare.net/sandeepIF/hindu-temples