A total of 1,023.73 acres of land out of over 6,500 acres in Tamil Nadu which belongs to temples but was wrongly transferred in the name of private persons has been successfully recovered in the last two years, New Indian Express has reported.
This recovered land is said to belong to 216 temple while the total land parcel belongs to 1,005 temples. The recovery was possible thanks to efforts by the state’s HR and CE department whose minister Sevoor S Ramachandran while seeking more funds.
“All the assets of the temples which have been encroached, will be recovered soon, overcoming all direct and indirect opposition”, the minister was quoted as saying.
Also, in the past eight years encroachments on Rs 2,855.36 acres worth of land, 557 sites and 250 buildings belonging to Hindu institutions have been dismantled and land has been returned to the temples. Out of this, 539.39 acres of lands and 87 plots have been recovered in the last two years.