A Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Board investigation has revealed the manner in which around 4.50 acres of land belonging to the Sri Kandaswamy temple, Tiruporur, was usurped, and subsequently restored to the temple.
Inquiries reveal in 2006, a real estate promoter obtained DTCP approval for a residential plot scheme promoted by him in Tiruporur village by including 2.50 acres belonging to the temple in the plot sketch as his property. In the sketch, he marked the temple land as “open space” and had even registered it in the name of the Tiruporur Town Panchayat through “dhana settlement” method.
This process, clandestinely carried out by the promoter and in collusion with officials at the Town Panchayat at that time, came to light when the Board representatives looking after the administration of properties of the temple, when they verified the list of properties belonging to the Chidambaraswamy Mutt, Tiruporur, which is the original trustee of the Sri Kandaswamy temple.
The verification was carried out in the wake of power struggle that erupted at the Mutt over succession.
Subsequently, the appropriation of temple land by a third party was brought to the notice of the Revenue Department and the ownership of the land was restored to the temple. A letter requesting the civic body not to take up any development work on the land belonging to the temple that has been clandestinely included in the residential layout area was also submitted, sources said.
Similarly, it was also found that 2.03 acres at Edaiyankuppam village, in the name of the temple as per the 1962 records, has been identified in the village A-register as ‘grama natham’.
