Minister for Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments, P. K. Sekar Babu, on Wednesday said that colleges and educational institutions will be constructed on lands belonging to various temples in the State.
Addressing presspersons after inspecting the Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple at Egmore along with Minister for Labour Welfare C. V. Ganesan, Mr. Sekar Babu said that these institutions would be constructed to ensure a steady income for the temples on whose lands they are to come up. He said that lands belonging to temples that are being retrieved from the clutches of encroachers would be put to use for the benefit of the society, an issue stressed upon by Chief Minister M. K. Stalin.
A commercial complex would soon come up on a piece of land measuring 50,000 sq ft on Poonamallee High Road belonging to the Egmore Perumal Temple, he added. The Minister instructed officials to remove encroachments quickly. He also told officials to speed up the construction of a Bhajanai matam that has been pending for over 15 years in Egmore.
The Minister said that in the last two months, five persons involved in idol thefts had been arrested and six idols have been brought back to the State.
