Temple dues: names of defaulters to be displayed

[Guest guest]

Dear Bhagavatas

Apropos to the recent discussions on the plight of temples in which we had

highlighted the apathy of the Government, here is an encouraging news

reported in the The Hindu on indiaserver.com :

 

Let us hope that this will help temples in India to secure their dues for

maintenance and renovation etc. at least to some extent, provided it is

followed up effectively.

Dasoham

Anbil Ramaswamy

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The Hindu on indiaserver.com : Temple dues: names of defaulters to be

displayed

 

Online edition of India's National Newspaper on indiaserver.com

 

Saturday, October 02, 1999

 

Temple dues: names of defaulters to be displayed

 

By Our Special Correspondent

 

CHENNAI, OCT. 1. As part of the measures to retrieve temple land held

by

 

encroachers and collect rent arrears from tenants, the Government is

 

planning to prominently display in temple premises a list of names of

 

those who are in illegal possession of temple properties and dodging

 

payment of rent.

 

Rent arrears from temple land alone is estimated at Rs. 77 crores while

 

the deprivation of income from vacant land, buildings and other sources

is

 

put at another Rs. 20 crores.

 

Recourse to the ``painful but inevitable step'' of displaying notice

 

boards is meant to bring ``moral pressure'' on the transgressors, force

 

them to pay up the dues and restore the properties to the temples.

 

The response to such a strategy adopted recently in respect of some

major

 

temples was encouraging, Mr. M. Tamizhkudimagan, Minister for HR & CE,

 

told TheHindu today.

 

He said that the number of vacant sites, shops and buildings belonging

to

 

temples in the State was around 56,000 and it was found that nearly

30,000

 

persons were ``benamis'' paying a pittance as rent all these years.

 

Instructions had been issued to the HR & CE officials to collect rent

 

according to market value in respect of each place or evict the

 

defaulters. This step was bound to bring in a substantial income to the

 

temples.

 

The Minister said that over 1,000 cases registered against those who

had

 

failed to pay up rent arrears were now before the revenue courts.

Further

 

action on the recovery of rent arrears would be decided at a meeting of

 

Joint Commissioners of HR & CE to be held next week.

 

A major breakthrough after a long legal battle was the recent retrieval

by

 

the HR & CE department of 220 grounds of prime land in Chennai which

 

belonged to an ancient temple in the city, said Mr. Tamizhkudimagan.

 

Enquiries show that in Chennai alone there are over 450 identified

temple

 

properties in the illegal possession of encroachers, many of whom have

 

converted them into residential units, lodging houses, etc.

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