‘Give temple land ownership to tenants’

Chennai:The non conferring of ownership rights on tenants of temple and mutt lands affects food productivity in the state, according to farmers and research scholars. They are urging the state government to reconsider its stand on temple lands in the wake of the Hindu Religious and Charitable Trust Minister P. Chendur Pandian declining to distribute the land stating that it would go against the wish of the donors. In Tamil Nadu, there are over 6.70 lakh acres of lands, which include wet, dry and rain fed lands owned by the religious institutions temples and mutts, and trusts.

 

Prof Dr V. Sivaprakasam, a former research associate with Centre for Research and Dravidian Movement, Madras University said that the extensive ownership of land by religious institutions like temples, mutts and trusts have created landlessness and tenancy among the agricultural labourers while handicapping agricultural production and productivity.

 

 He said that during his research on productivity of owner cultivators and tenant cultivators in Swami malai and Tiruvalanzuli in Thanjavur district, he found higher productivity among owners than tenants. “The owners have registered an average productivity of 2,137 kg of kuruvai paddy per acre while the tenants registered an average yield of 1,353 kg per acre,” he said. He added that productivity is affected by various factors, including denial of crop loans to tenants.

 

Prof Sivaprakasam, who has written a doctoral thesis on: Temple Lands in the Agrarian Reform of Tamil Nadu, said that with the increase in population and conversion of agricultural land for other purposes, ten ants should be given ownership to increase the productivity. He said that the government should adopt a practical approach on temple lands considering social economic implication rat her than matters of faith. 

 

Tamil Nadu Vivasaigal Sangam general secretary P. Shanmugham refuted the minister’s claim that distribution of temple lands would go against the wish of donors. He said a majority of the temple lands was donated centuries ago by kings and chieftains. He pointed out that temples in Kerala were being administered without any problem even after the temple lands were distributed to tenants and landless peasants.  

 

“The government should take over the lands and distribute it to tenants by paying money to the temples. The rich farmers should be made to pay while it poor should get it free,” he said. He demanded that the government form a committee comprising various stakeholders, including temple administrators, farmers’ representatives and officials, to decide on the question of temple land distribution.