Express press service

TIRUPPUR: Alleging that hereditary trustees are hampering the effective administration of temples, activists have urged the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE;) department to cut the posts. According to the HR&CE; department, there are more than 70 temples in western Tamil Nadu, which includes the districts of Coimbatore, Tiruppur and Erode. Most temples have hereditary administrators.

The department recently suspended the hereditary trustees of Kandiyankoil Temple, Chellandiyamman Temple (Thanthoni Village, Udumalaipet), Pattathuarasi Amman Temple (Udumalaipet) and Kinathadi Vinayagar Temple (Udumalaipet City) for allegedly attempting to sell the lands of the temple.

Quoting this, A Eswaran, an activist, said, “The hereditary administrators of all the temples in Tiruppur are influential and very connected people and do not care about administration or encroachment. The land around the 200-year-old Visveswara Swamy Temple has been encroached upon. by individuals for over 100 years. At one time, there were over 150 shops and houses around the temple.

“The invaders were directly or indirectly supported by the hereditary trustees. The temple administration took no action in this case, and the activists filed a civil suit in court, which dragged on for more than 40 years Former Tiruppur City Council Chairman K Selvaraj demolished these shops when he came to power in the early 2000s,” he said.

The Secretary of All India Lawyers Association (Tiruppur), S Ponram, said, “The post of hereditary administrator was created by the HR&CE; department to ensure the administration of the temples, but over a period of time, the post has been abused. Some temples in Tiruppur have encountered a lot of problems. of them and, therefore, the office of hereditary trustees should be abolished.”

Talk to The new Indian Expressan HR&CE; department official said: ‘We have launched investigations into these matters. hereditary trustees. But, to do so, the approval of senior HR&CE; officials is required and a new law must be passed in the State Assembly.”