100 acres of CDB land encroached

Thrissur: Nearly 100 acres of land of the Cochin Devaswom Board, encroached by private persons, have been identified and eight acres have been taken back, outgoing CDB president Dr. M.K. Sudarsan has said.

Mr Sudarshan, who has completed a term of two years, told reporters that during his tenure, the CDB income had grown and that the board had Rs 100 crore as fixed deposits on various heads.

“One of the biggest achievements during my tenure was the inspection of 223 acres of land of which 97.46 acres were encroached. Out of this, eight acres have been retrieved. We got a tahsildar to retrieve the encroached land. The CDB has at present a total of 403 temples out of which 298 are controlled. The CDB is in the process of taking over three temples and 15 other temples have approached the board requesting takeover,” he added.

There are several other encroached lands and the team led by the tahsildar appointed by the government along with CDB surveyors is looking into the matter, CDB officials said.

Mr Sudarsan termed the allegation that the CDB was favouring people with CPM background to be part of temple committees as baseless. It was the faithful who have the right to choose the committee members, he said.