Over 18 acre temple lands retrieved in Thanjavur

TIRUCHY: The HR&CE department retrieved 18.65 acres worth Rs 2.57 crore belonging to various temples in Thanjavur on Thursday.

Sources said that land parcels measuring 7.67 acres belonging to Poovanam Arulmigu Pushpaneshwarar temple under the control of Palathali Arulmigu Durgai Amman temple, 5.84 acres owned by Pukkarambai Arulmigu Thanthondri Amman temple and another 4.33 acres belonging to Arulmigu Subramania Swamy temple were encroached by private parties for several years.

The HR&CE officials, who identified the encroached lands, assigned executive officer K Sakthivel to hold talks with the encroachers and he successfully convinced them to return the lands.

Subsequently, the HR&CE assistant commissioner Nagaiyya, special tahsildar Sankar and temple staff inspected the respective lands and retrieved them on Thursday. Officials also had made fencing around the land and fixed a notice board as part of measures to prevent encroachment attempts in future.