After a prolonged legal battle, the officials of the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowment (HR and CE) department on Monday retrieved 6.72 acres of land belonging to the Bhagawati Amman temple at Mannarai, from a priest’s family.
The land was situated nearly a kilometre from the shrine. The priest and his family members were staying in a house on the land, claiming many generations of their family had been residing there. However, the HR and CE department was firm that the land was encroached and asked the priest’s family to vacate.
When the priest’s family approached Madras High Court, it issued a directive to HR and CE Commissioner to look into the issue and take appropriate action, HR and CE Assistant Commissioner S.V. Harshini told The Hindu . Following this, the HR and CE Commissioner ordered the family to vacate the land, she said.
Ms. Harshini said the eviction was carried out after affixing notices on the encroached structures on November 22, before the officials demolished the three buildings and a shed on the land on Monday evening.
On Monday, the priest’s family claimed they did not get the notice to evict them, covering the notices pasted on the doors with papers.
Executive Officer of Bhagawati Amman temple C. Sivaramasuryan said the encroachers even attempted to sell a portion of the land many years back, and that was stopped with timely intervention from HR and CE officials.
