Chennai: The State Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR & CE) Department has asserted that efforts were on to retrieve the temple properties that have been encroached upon and that due procedures were being followed in this regard.
The executive officer of each temple where the property ought to be retrieved has been entrusted with the task of regaining them with the guidance of senior officials, an official said. “We follow due procedure by issuing show-cause notices to the encroachers as per the HR & CE act, and thereafter seek the assistance of police and revenue officials to evict the encroachers and get back the properties. Retrieval is not so simple a procedure that it can be performed overnight,” he added.
Meanwhile, taking strong exception to the “inordinate delay” in implementing the court order on the issue, BJP national secretary H. Raja led a fast agitation at Valluvar Kottam here on Sunday along with the members of the Hindu Aalayangal Meetppu Iyakkam.
Hindu Munnani founder-convener Ramagopalan, BJP state president Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan and BJP MP L. Ganesan, extended their support to Mr. Raja.
Speaking to reporters, Mr. Raja claimed that the HR & CE has been “inactive’ and had failed to implement the order of the Madras High Court Judge, Justice R. Mahadevan, in retrieving temple properties. He warned that he would intensify the agitation if the department failed to recover all the properties that were usurped, by this year-end.
Recently, the judge had directed the HR&CE to issue public notices informing persons in possession of such properties to voluntarily surrender them to avoid penal action. The order was passed after the HR&CE admitted that of 5.25 lakh acres of temple land on record until a few years ago, only 4.78 lack acres existed now.
