The government will initiate steps to take over encroached land of temples in the state. Replying to the discussions on The Madras Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (Amendment) Bill, 2013, Devaswom Minister V S Sivakumar, who piloted the Bill, assured the House that steps would be taken to retrieve the encroached land of the temples. He said, however, various legal tangles were hampering the efforts. The minister said that it was the Justice Paripoornan Commission appointed by the Kerala High Court which recommended the constitution of a separate recruitment board for the appointments to Devaswom Boards.
He said the recruitment board would also ensure the reservation principles in recruitments. He said that steps had already been taken to raise the grade of temple priests and other staff. Their salaries also will be revised, the minister said. Sivakumar said that `5 crore would be allotted for implementing the Zero Wastes project at Sabarimala. For the implementation of the Master Plan, Rs 15 crore was sanctioned last year. Rs 10 lakh was sanctioned this year too, he said. The Devaswom Minister also said that the government had allotted Rs 22 crore for Malabar Devaswom to disburse salary of the employees and for renovation of temples. Call to Take Over Encroached Land Participating in the discussion on the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (Amendments) Bill 2013, both the Opposition and treasury benchers asked the government to take effective steps to resume the encroached land of temples.
K K Jayachandran of the CPM urged the government to take over the 800 acres of land owned by the Panthalloor Siva temple which was encroached by a company owned by a prominent Malayalam daily and seven others. He said that the High Court had also asked the government to take steps to resume the land. However, the District Collector has not been given any directive in this regard, he said and added that 24,636 acres the temples in Malabar were encroached.
The government should constitute a revenue unit to take over these land, he said. Palode Ravi of the Congress, who spoke about the rich contributions of the temples to the socio-cultural scene, asked the government to take earnest efforts to protect these temples and their properties.
Quoting from William Logan’s Malabar Manual, he said even the British had taken steps to help the temples retain their properties. He urged the government to include the temples in the 9th Schedule of the Constitution to retain the cultural heritage of the country. K Muralidharan of the Congress, participating in the discussion on The Travancore-Cochin Hindu Religious Institutions (Amendment) Bill, 2013, said that the government should ensure representation of women in the Devaswom Boards.
Babu M Palisseri said that there should be a uniform Devaswom Board.