Concerned over a steady decline in the volume of immovable assets under its possession over the decades, the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) finally appears to be moving towards a more responsible land stewardship.
As per preliminary estimates, the TDB has lost a startling 490 hectares of land in Kerala alone which were previously under its possession. Of the just over 3,000 acres under its possession, it also faces legal disputes in about 550 acres. At the same time, the actual extent of holdings outside the State that have been lost to encroachments over the decades is yet to be ascertained.
Based on the finding, it has embarked on a drive to collect exhaustive proof of its ownership rights over various properties through verification of old documents and taking legal recourse, among others.
Accordingly, the board has initiated steps to restore the two old guest houses with a total of 30 rooms under its ownership near the Kashi Viswanath temple in Varanasi. The project, being initiated with active support of the Keralite families residing in Varanasi, is estimated to cost over ₹1 crore rupees.
“A guest house protection committee has been constituted. A contractor for restoring the two buildings, which have a total of 30 rooms, has been identified. Located at a prime spot near the Kashi Vishwanath temple, they were of extreme importance to the board in the previous century that the devaswom manual of 1952 even provided for free distribution of meals to at least 10 pilgrims on a daily basis,” said K. Ananthagopan, president, TDB.
The board had inherited these palaces from the erstwhile King of Travancore who had received them as a gift from the then king of Banares. It, however, lost track of properties over time which eventually fell into a state of disrepair.
Meanwhile, the TDB has also succeeded in establishing the ownership rights over a 30.25-acre property, including paddy land, in Tenkasi district of Tamil Nadu which had been long held by local residents. Plans are also afoot to retrieve at least 11 acres out of the total 25 acres at Devikulam in Idukki, while legal action has been initiated against the encroachment of its properties in a few other locations as well.
Notwithstanding these efforts, the board, however, has been unable to to even locate several of its holdings , especially those outside the State. “A 78-acre property somewhere near the present Varanasi airport has become completely untraceable despite multiple attempts, so are a few other holdings in its nearby villages,” confirmed a board official.
