The Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Department has obtained patta for 2,122 acres of salt pan lands belonging to Vedaranyeswarar Temple in Vedaranyam in Nagapattinam district. The lands in Agasthyampalli village had been leased to the Government of India’s Salt Department since the East India Company times, said Minister P.K. Sekarbabu.
“Though the lands belonged to the temple and had been leased to the Government of India, the patta was not in the name of the deity. The department had filed a case in 2006 with the Revenue Department, and recently Chief Minister M.K. Stalin had directed us to expedite it. Among the proofs we submitted, we had records of the Salt Department paying the temple the lease amount. Then the decision came in our favour and it was ordered that the temple could get patta under the Tamil Nadu Small Inam Act - 1963,” he said.
Sources said the Centre had around 4,000 acres of Salt Department lands belonging to the temple under perpetual lease. However, the temple authorities had said the lands be returned to it. Mr. Sekarbabu said the livelihoods of the salt pan workers would be safeguarded. “Our aim is to get a fair income for the temple. The lands would be maintained as salt lands,” he said.
The DMK government, in its current stint, has recovered a total of 1,771 acres of lands that had patta data wrongly transferred, and 2,451 acres of lands whose chittas had been wrongly registered had been retrieved and patta and chitta data corrected. The HR&CE Department has so far retrieved ₹4,505 crore-worth lands totally measuring 4,802 acres.
