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.
