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In reply to a RTI filed by Shri @trramesh, TN HRCE gives only one tenth of the actual properties owned by a famous temple in South TN as the total amoumt of properties owned by the temple.
After learning about the difference in amount of properties by comparing the list given in the RTI reply with previous records, @Ravilochanan86 and myself visited the temple with the motive to find the reason behind disappearance of temple properties in the current list
And while speaking to the EO, we found out that the traditional inam register which has the list of all properties gifted to the temple has gone missing from the temple. Hence on paper there is no way for TN HRCE to identify properties belonging to the temple and maintain them
As a result more than 75% of the temple properties which includes 24 reservoirs, 1000 acres of gardens, more than 10000 acres of agricultural land etc have disappeared in the previous 30 years under the HRCE administration
Another famous temple, which is very popular in the region, receives large amount of paddy & other grains as offerings by the devotees. As the HRCE couldn't loot this temple by interfering in its day to day affairs because of the active participation of devotees in temple affairs
It has introduced a different way of corruption in the temple. As per a hereditary trustee of this famous temple, previous financial year's audit report of HRCE stated that the paddy submitted by the devotees were of low quality
Hence they could muster only 1 sack of rice from 10 sacks of paddy after its processing.
But contrary to this claim of the dept, our interaction with a devotee who had come to offer paddy revealed that devotees choose the best of grains from their yield as offering to the deity as they believe that the deity's blessing is very important in obtaining good yield
On the whole, we learnt that corruption is unavoidable in temples administered by govt. Even if devotees actively work to curb misdeeds in administration, the govt just finds a way to loot.
