By Express News Service

CHENNAI: The HR&CE department has admitted before the Madras High Court on Friday that as many as 372 stone idols and 832 icons belonging to 387 temples were stolen from 1992, despite enhanced security measures.

This was revealed in a counter-affidavit filed by the department Commissioner R Jaya before Justice R Mahadevan, to a petition by Elephant G Rajendran seeking to strengthen security in temples and to prevent idol thefts, on Thursday. The revelation was based on records available with the department from 1992 to 2017.

Of the more than 1,200 thefts reported, only 56 had been solved and the possession of stolen items were restored only in respect of 18 cases. In cases involving theft of 385 icons/idols from 33 temples, complaints had been closed with the items being declared as not traceable by the police department, the counter said.

The counter also said 38,635 religious institutions were under the control of the department and 36,595 of them were temples. Only a meagre 305 temples had an annual income of over `10 lakh each and the income of 598 of them was between `two lakh and `10 lakh.

The income of 3,505 temples ranged between `10,000 and `two lakh and that a majority of 32,817 temples had a revenue less than `10,000 a year.

They did not get sufficient funds even for their daily pujas at least once a day. It was with the surplus funds from 331 religious institutions that the department was able to provide money for its own upkeep, ‘tiruppani’ works, the counter added.

Strong rooms had been constructed in 11,512 temples to protect valuables, including idols and jewels and all of them had been equipped with CCTV cameras, burglar alarms, tell-tale clocks, iron grill gates and inner lock system. Security personnel had also been deployed. High-security Icon Centres numbering 34 had been constructed in select temples for protecting the idols, and 19 of them had already started functioning, the counter said.

The rest would become operational in another three months, Jaya said and added that 3.36 lakh idols belonging to 31,000 temples had been photographed and the images were uploaded on the department’s web portal.

An Integrated Temple Management System is also being developed and it is expected to be in place in a year. The Commissioner added that the department had sought the assistance of the IIT-M to purchase closed-circuit television cameras (CCTVs) of good resolution which could help prevent theft of ancient idols from temples across the State, as the existing ones are not working satisfactorily. The matter has been posted for January 29.

‘God is equal to all’

Chennai: God will never be partial in bestowing his blessings on the people either by noticing who is performing pooja and who is not or who is standing in the first row or who is standing in the last row, the Madras High Court has observed. Justice K Ravichandrabaabu made the observation while passing orders on a writ petition from two parties staking claim to perform ‘Mandagapadi Kattalai’ to the main deity in Sri Subramanya Swamy temple at Chennimalai in Erode district in view of ‘Thai Poosam’, falling on January 31. The judge, following a similar order passed in 2017, permitted S Natarajan to perform the Mandagapadi.