‘A team of retired deputy collectors, tahsildars and surveyors has been appointed for this’

The State government is taking steps to identify and restore temple lands for which pattas were wrongly issued to private individuals and wrongly registered in the computerised chittas, according to the policy note of the HR & CE Department tabled in the Assembly on Wednesday.

The government has appointed nine retired Deputy Collectors, 19 retired Tahsildars, and 10 retired Surveyors on consolidated pay for this purpose, the note said.

“In 2015-16 alone, pattas of 1,034.21 acres of land belonging to 170 temples were ordered to be restored to the temples,” the policy note said.

The government will also provide one more international standard cable car for Palani, following the success of the first cable car facility. “Agreement has also been entered to provide new cable cars for Sholingur Arulmigu Lakshmi Narasimhaswami Temple, and Karur Ayyarmalai, Arulmigu Rathinagireeswarar Temple,” according to the policy note.

The government will also conduct Tamil training classes for Mauritius Tamils to enable them to write and speak Tamil, Sevoor S. Ramachandran, Minister for HR & CE and Tamil Official Language and Tamil Culture, announced in the Assembly.

Replying to a query from Congress MLA H. Vasantha Kumar, newly appointed Minister for School Education and Sports and Youth Welfare, ‘Ma Foi’ K. Pandiarajan said every year the State selects elite sportsmen through various sports meets.

“This year, eight sportspersons from Tamil Nadu were part of the Olympics contingent. We are developing sports infrastructure and we are sure that for the next Olympics, which will also be under the current AIADMK regime, that at least 24 athletes from the State will represent India and win medals at the Olympics”.