The Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) department along with Revenue Department and the police removed encroachments from 3.11 acres of lands in three villages along the East Coast Road.
The properties belonged to the Nemeli Sri Alavandhar Nayakar Trust that owns 1,054 acres spread across the villages of Pattipulam, Saluvankuppam and Nemili and were retrieved after a High Court order in a public interest litigation filed by an advocate.
The court had directed the authorities to measure the properties, remove the encroachments under Section 78 of the HR&CE Act and submit a report by April 30. Around 57 encroachments were identified in the drive and land worth ₹12 crore retrieved and boards with details about the ownership of the properties installed, said sources in the HR&CE.
“Some encroachments were used by resorts and hatcheries as gardens, watch towers and as roads to access to properties. In many cases, adjacent properties had, over the years, slowly taken over these lands for their use. We have been removing encroachments on a regular basis but in many cases since the lands are open and too vast to be fenced, they keep coming,” said a source.
Lands belonging to the trust have been given towards the widening of the East Coast Road and also for construction of the Nemeli desalination plant. In the three villages, the trust owns vast tracts of land and they were under single survey numbers. Alavandar, who is known as Ayiram Kaani Alavandar acquired vast extents of wet and dry lands in Nemili, Pattikulam, Salavankuppam, Krishnankaranai, Soolerikadu, Kadumbadi and Mahabalipuram villages in 1877. He was said to be a trader and bequeathed these properties towards charities, including as expenditure for conduct of various festivals in the area in 1914.
