HR&CE dept to conduct surveys to trace TN's 'lost' temple land

Chennai: The Tamil Nadu Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Department is planning to carry out extensive surveys using different global positioning systems(DGPS) to trace lost land of temples in the state.

Chief Minister M.K. Stalin has asked HR&CE Minister P.K. Sekar Babu to act immediately after reports on the 50,000 missing land records had come out, an official said.

The government has already engaged 150 licensed surveyors to complete the work. The department is expecting the work to be completed in a year and onsite verification of several records running to lakhs of pages have started in many temples of the state.

The order has been made based on the startling mismatch of around 50,000 acres of temple land in Tamil Nadu on the land records details of 2019-20 and 1988-90, said Department officials.

"The Tamil Nadu government will not allow the temple land to be encroached upon... the difference of 50,000 acres in the land records of 1988-90 and 2019-20 is big and we have already engaged professional surveyors to conduct a proper survey," said Sekar Babu.

The HR&CE Department has engaged a team of surveyors with teams, comprising 4 to 10 surveyors, to be stationed at major temples. In addition, Village administrative officers would also support the HR&CE teams to carry out the survey by providing necessary field maps.