The Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) department on Wednesday crossed an important milestone – it finished measuring and marking 50,000 acres of land belonging to temples in the State.
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HR&CE Minister P.K. Sekarbabu, along with Small Industries Minister T.M. Anbarasan, planted the stone for the 50,001st acre being marked at the land owned by Vyagrapureeswarar temple at Thirupulivanam village in Kancheepuram district.
“in three months’ time, the measurement of one lakh acres of land would be completed. Currently, we have 66 teams of licensed surveyors and revenue officials physically verifying and measuring temple lands, according to documents. We will be increasing the number to 100 teams with more rover equipment needed to digitally measure and GPS-mark the lands,” he said, speaking to reporters after the event.
Mr. Sekarbabu said the details of temple lands would be made available at the offices of the Commissioner of HR&CE, Joint Commissioners and Assistant Commissioners. The initiative is aimed at not only safeguarding temple lands but also providing an idea about their location and how they could be put to good use and earn income for the temples.
Earlier, the Minister visited the 1,000-year-old Sri Sundararajaperumal temple, where renovation work is to be carried out, and the Balasubramanyaswami temple, where the wooden temple car is to be reconstructed at a cost of ₹55 lakh, in Uthiramerur taluk of Kancheepuram district. Commissioner J. Kumaragurubaran and District Collector M. Aarthi were present on the occasion.