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| damaged Meenakshi temple, Madurai newindianexpress.com |
Above image: Meenakshi temple, East tower Mandapam near 1000 pillar hall. Roughly 7000 sq ,ft of Vasantharayar mandapam was damaged in a fire mishap in one of shops seeing puja items. Fire broke out in early February, 2018. The shops were let out by the HR & CE . Now the hall is restored. ........
Coimbatore city, demolition of 7 Hindu temples. twitter.com
Above image: Coimbatore city corporation Authorities in July, 2021 demolished 7 Temples in Tank bund, Muthannankulam after relocating about 300 Families from 14 Acre area by marking it as ''Encroached''. One of the temples was more than 100 year old. Using earthmovers, officials deployed earthmovers and heavy machinery to demolish Amman Kovil, Bannari Amman Kovil, Angala Parameswari, Karupparayan Kovil, Muneeswaran Kovil and a few other temples, reports The Hindu. Reason : to develop lake bund under smart city scheme. HR & CE was a mute spectator. There was no referendum on the proposed demolition of the temples............
In December, 2022, the SC sought Tamil Nadu govt's response on a petition filed by the 'Indic Collective Trust, that made a serious allegation that HR&CE had taken over 38,000 temples illegally and asked the TN govt to recall EOs appointed at temples.
Tamil Nadu govt recruited executive officials close to the ruling party without nominating temple trustees. This move by the state governments would further result in abuse of temple revenues, properties and puja traditions inherent to the temples. A bench consisting of CJI DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha heard the case on December 13, 2022 and sought a response from the state government. The petition stated that while the Conditions for the Appointment of Executive Officers Rules, 2015 limit their duration a maximum of five years, the EO recruited by the state authorities were nominated indefinitely with no conditions specified in their appointment orders.
The petitioner got the attention of the SC that the state had violated the Articles 25, 26 and 29 of the Constitution of India by appointing Executive Officers in the temples of Tamil Nadu. It means EOs armed with powers are illegally controlling the temple management. against the wish of the devotees and in violation of Agama sastras. The petitioner mentioned numerous examples as to how the EOs, took arbitrary decisions related to countless unmercenary projects and activities costing crores of rupees. The officials take a cut in such project works. At stake is the heritage aspect of historical temples where illegal constructions of mediocre buildings, shopping malls, AC rooms for the officials, etc were going on with impunity. ''Complete take over of the temples by EOs without any valid reason is in complete violation of the law,” the petition mentioned.
Senior Advocate CS Vaidyanathan, counsel for the petitioner, argued that the EOs diverted temple cash - hundial donations from devotees to meet their salaries and other non-religious uses. He also emphasized the fact that in the last 70 years HR & CE had never returned a single temple to the trustee or the community involved after taking over temple administration. It is roughly equal to retrieving the sugarcane given to an hungry elephant.
Among the temples in TN there are 36,627 temples, 57 temples and 17 temples that come under the management of the holy Mutts and Jains Mutts respectively. It is reported that of them 88.22% are under the grip of the HR&CE Department and have an annual income of less than Rs. 10,000.
The petition asked that the State of Tamil Nadu to recognize all Executive Officers who are serving without legitimate appointment orders, who were nominated without valid reasons, or who were hired under Sections 43-A or 45 of the Tamil Nadu Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Act, 1959, prior to the implementation of the Conditions for Appointment of Executive Officers Rules, 2015.
In the last decade or so many temples lost a big chunk of their landed properties due to HR & CE"s lethargic attitude. In 2021 The Hindu religious and charitable endowments (HR & CE) proudly announced that they retrieved temple properties worth more than Rs 1,543 crores from 424 encroachments on lands comprising 407 acres in the last 8 months according to TOI report dated December 7, 2021. HR & CE identified the retrieved properties using the latest technology - .differential global position system (DGPS) and onsite rover survey to trace the lost properties. The paradox is HR & CE never revealed the names of the encroachers or violators of law. Nor did they seek court's intervention to book the culprits. The reason why they avoided the identity of the violators was invariably the violators were local netas or relatives of higher ranking members of the ruling party.
In the last three months across Tamil Nadu are furious over the large scale abuse of temple lands, violation of traditional norms of the historic temples with respect to festivals puja protocols and construction of shopping malls, Kalyana mandapams, etc. The money could have been spent to restore countless dilapidated temples across the state.
https://www.opindia.com/2022/12/38000-temples-tamil-nadu-taken-over-by-hr-ce-sc-seeks-response/