Madras HC notice to TN on plea to remove encroachment by temple in Chennai

Chennai: Madras high court has ordered notice to the state government on a petition seeking to remove encroachment allegedly made by Sri Kalasathamman Temple on public property in Ramapuram.

A division bench of Justices M Venugopal and S Ramathilagam, before which the PIL filed by Arappor Iyakkam, a NGO, came up for hearing, has directed the HR & CE department, Tiruvallur district collector, and Chennai corporation to file their reply by September 10.

The NGO, in the petition submitted since 1970 Sri Kalasathamman Temple existed in a government poramboke in Ramapuram. Subsequently, the temple was handed over to HR & CE.

In 2014 the temple authorities started encroaching the public road by building an additional mandapam and erecting roadblocks. The road became very narrow and only two-wheelers were able to ply on the road posing hindrance to people. Subsequently issue arose among locals and the temple authorities over encroachment.

The residents staged protest against the encroachment. The RDO through his letter dated October 21, 2016, directed the tahsildar to inspect and remove the encroachments as agreed in the peace committee meeting. Again the temple encroached the land. Due to the encroachment '48.50 crore underground sewerage scheme has been stalled.