Temple lands, property belong to gods not govt, withdraw GO, says BJP

Chennai: The Madras High Court order staying the operation of the government order on ceding encroached portions of land belonging to temples to encroachers has come as a shot in the arm for the BJP, which has been protesting against the move. The party has now stepped up its demand for withdrawing the controversial GO.

Ruling AIADMK’s ally, the BJP is not only totally against the GO but also wants the State government to either protect the god’s properties ranging from lands, to idols and jewellery, or withdraw its hold on temples. TN is known as the land of temples and without its lands and other properties, temples will lose their identity and the State its heritage, it is argued. “Encroachments on temple lands should not be legalised either for poor, educational institutions or land mafia because such lands have been donated by devotees to gods. Legalising encroachments will send a wrong signal as it would lead to largescale encroachment. The government should honour the gesture of devotees who have donated and immediately withdraw the GO,” says Vanathi Srinivasan, BJP state general secretary.

What’s wrong in legalising encroachments, one may ask. The State Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR & CE) department which is managing over 34,000 temples across Tamil Nadu, including several major temples which fetch crores of revenue, has found that over 25,000 acres land belonging to numerous temples and said to be worth `10,000 crore have been encroached. The department is still in the process of updating its records. Although efforts are made to evict encroachments, the successive Dravidian governments legalise encroachments on temple lands.

“In many cases, certain members belonging to the political party occupy vast chunks of lands and they invariably benefit when pattas are provided by the government. Then all of a sudden, agitations erupt opposing displacement of the ‘poor’ from temple lands,” a senior leader of the Hindu Munnani said.

As to the solution, Vanathi Srinivasan suggests its high time the State government identifies suitable land for accommodating the poor and stop eating into temple lands. “The government should chalk out a plan. For instance during his visit to Rameswaram, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, expressed his willingness to provide financial assistance to the State for constructing houses for the poor. The government could consider utilising the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana to provide housing for the poor,” she added.

Already the Sangh Parivar in TN has been demanding the government to relinquish its hold on temples and hand them over to an autonomous body comprising of Hindu leaders and religious heads for maintenance. “The government should give up its control and allow temples to be efficiently managed,” the BJP leader argued.

While staying a part of the Aug. 30 GO seeking to regularise non-objectionable temple land encroached by squatters for over five years, a division bench of Justice M. Sathyanarayanan and Justice N. Seshasayee directed the State government to file a report on the number of temples administered by HR & CE, parcels of land owned by them with survey numbers, details of encroachments on such lands, action taken against encroachers and officials who failed to take action on encroachers, by Jan.20, 2020.