INDIA, October, October 22, 2021 (Times of India): Hindu Religious & Charitable Endowments minister P. K. Sekar Babu is devout, sports the tilak on his forehead and visits at least one temple a day – as part of his duty, of course. A crossover from the AIADMK, he had one request to late DMK patriarch M. Karunanidhi [an outspoken atheist] when he joined the party in 2011 —that he should not be restrained from visiting temples. In a freewheeling interview to Julie Mariappan, he talks about a range of issues including tightening security for temples, building a grand museum in Chennai for stolen statues retrieved from museums abroad, reclaiming encroached land and providing jobs for Tamil priests.
Excerpts:
The chorus to free temples from the HR & CE department has been growing. Your view?
About 44,000 temples are under the control of the department. Is this a building work or a road or stormwater drain to be given to private parties? We are governed by the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Act, 1959. We don’t do politics but serve devotees. Master plans are getting ready to improve facilities for devotees in 529 temples. It is a golden era now under the HR & CE.
Encroachments of temple land is a big concern. How much more land do you need to reclaim?
So far we have reclaimed 400 acres of land worth approx. US$266 million across the state and removed 160 encroachers. Anti-socials took advantage of the poor maintenance and transferred pattas to their names. We restored titles for 180 acres.
Sekar Babu addresses the gold monetization scheme and more in this interview at “source”.