The Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) plans to introduce a scheme to bring residential houses and commercial establishments, which were reportedly built on the lands of Balasubramanyaswamy Temple at Vennaimalai in Karur district, under its tenants list.
The HR&CE department, which has launched a drive to evict the encroachments as per the order of the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court, has so far cleared 34 properties around the temple. Most of these were commercial establishments and all of them have been sealed by the authorities. The temple administration continues to serve notice, in a phased manner, to households and business establishments.
Since the authorities began the drive, after the contempt of court proceedings for failing to implement the court order, the residents have been strongly objecting to the action. They claim that they have documents and certificates issued by the Revenue Department and they were the legal owners of the lands. Several of them claim that it was wrong to claim that they had encroached on the temple land. They say that they are in possession of the respective plots for several decades.
Property owners protest
Protesting against the action of the HR&CE officials, the residents have conducted many agitations including fast, dharna and others. They went on to prevent the temple officials and priests from opening the temple for routine pujas and the festivities related to Kanda Shasti festival on Wednesday. A group of them blocked Assistant Commissioner of HR&CE M. Ramanikanthan and Executive Officer C. Suguna and a few other officials. The protest that began around 4 p.m. continued till 11 p.m. They returned home after several rounds of negotiation by the officials. The affected people are said to have planned to hold continuous protests against the eviction drive.
Reacting to the development, an official of the HR&CE told The Hindu that the department had no other options but to execute the court order. Action was undertaken as per the court direction. Over 1,000 people had built buildings on the temple land. They would be evicted in a phased manner after serving prior notices. However, as a step towards supporting them, it had proposed to bring them under the tenant list of the temple. It would enable them to live in the respective houses. A section of them had accepted the proposal. However, some were not ready, the official added.
Meanwhile, the Soorasamharam event, which was part of the five-day Kanda Shasti festival, was held under tight security. The protesters, who refused to allow the priests and temple staff to open the temple in the afternoon on Wednesday, did not disrupt the puja and festivities on Thursday.
Published – November 07, 2024 07:36 pm IST