Author: Our Staff Reporter
Publication: The Hindu
Date: April 20, 2002
Pondicherry April 19 The Congress
member, R. Kamalakannan today expressed protest against tampering with
the land and property belonging to temples and demanded proper enumeration
of such property.
Participating in the debate on demand
for grants to certain departments in the Assembly today, the member regretted
that the administration was indiscriminately acquiring temple land, conferring
ownership on people without realising the purpose of donation of property
to the Hindu religious institutions.
If the present trend of tampering
with temple properties was permitted there would be a serious dislocation
of availabilty of sources of income for the temples in the future, he said.
Referring to the pitiable plight
of environment in the Tirunallar village where the famous shrine of Sri
Saneeswarar was situated. He said that people were suffering a lot for
want of safe drinking water, toilet facilities and also accomodation and
other facilities.This temple was attracting a lot of devotees from different
corners of the country almost every day and more on Saturdays.
Maintaining that there should be
appointment of temple trustees associations in all the temples Kamalakannan
said that the persons so selected for the boards should also men of integrity
and good antecedents.
The inter-State bus permits had
not been renewed for nearly two decades. This should be looked into without
delay, he said. A M Krishnamoorthy (BJP) said that the temple land were
being cornered by certain groups in the union Territory. Immediate steps
should be taken to retrieve the properties in the larger interest of maintaining
the temples. He said when a private house builder wanted to raise a structure
all niceties of rules and regulations were focussed by the authorities.
But there was one hotelier who had raised several borewells, dug a big
pit for the structure close to the sea shore.
How could this particular individual
get permission of the authorities, although his building was posing a threat
to the safety and stability of the other structures in the neighbourhood.
R Siva (DMK) wanted proper supervision of the utilisation of funds and
proerty of the Trust created by the late Chinna Subbaraya Pillai. He said
that the late Pillai had bequeathed his properties worth several crores
for the benefit of the poor.
