The Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department has listed out before the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court the steps being taken to preserve heritage temples in the State.
It submitted a compliance report to a Division Bench of Justices P.N. Prakash and R. Hemalatha, who were hearing a petition filed in 2019 by K.K. Ramesh of Madurai seeking a direction to the department to take steps to preserve the temples.
In its compliance report, the department has said that the thalavaralaru (history of the temple) and the thalapuranam (legend of the temple) of major shrines have been published to enable the public to know about their heritage, history and importance.
Nine resolutions were passed at an advisory committee meeting chaired by the Chief Minister on January 20. The resolutions include documentation and publication of history, preservation of palm leaves and copper plates and publication of rare books.
A notification has been issued inviting applications from retired professors of Tamil and English for appointment as translators of agama and other religious books into the two languages.
The government has announced ‘Annai Thamizhil Archanai’ to be performed in temples. Notice boards have been installed in temples regarding puja timings, kinds of pujas and fee and the temple properties.
The lands belonging to the department are being identified and retrieved from encroachment and modern equipment is being used to survey the lands. The records maintained by the department are being digitised and, so far, 10,944 records have been digitised.
Property registers of 10,456 temples have been uploaded in the specially created Integrated Temple Management System and details of approval given by the State-level Heritage Committee for renovation of temples have been uploaded on the website.
A work monitoring system has been rolled out and 24 hours workrooms have been inaugurated at the head office to monitor ingress and egress of devotees in major temples. Around 2,064 CCTV cameras have been installed in 48 major temples and connected to the main control room.
Taking note of the compliance report, the judges closed the petition filed by K.K. Ramesh. In another petition filed by Mr. Ramesh seeking a direction to the authorities to maintain temple tanks properly, they directed that the compliance report be filed in a month’s time.
