The farmers protested against the restoration of 18 acres of cultivated land belonging to perur Pateeswarar temple in Coimbatore district. The officials who arrived there were stopped and protested.
Coimbatore: Farmers staged a protest at perur Pateeswarar temple here on Sunday after they stopped the officials who had come to retrieve the land belonging to the temple.
For the past 40 years, 11 farmers have been cultivating 18 acres of land belonging to the Perur Pateeswarar temple in Coimbatore. It also seems that a certain lease amount is being paid for the same
For the last two years, the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department has been engaged in the restoration of encroached temple lands across Tamil Nadu.
Following this, the temple authorities tried to reclaim about 18 acres of temple land belonging to the Pateeswarar temple in Perur area of Coimbatore. Following this, a petition was filed in the Madras High Court on behalf of the farmers requesting permission to continue farming.
While the temple administration has responded to this, today the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department and the temple management went with police protection to recover the encroachment.
The farmers then stopped the tractor across the road leading to the land and stopped the officials from entering.
There was a heated argument between the officials who came for talks and the farmers. With the hearing in the case coming up again on The 7th, they raised slogans protesting against the authorities taking over the agricultural land in haste.
As the argument continued, revenue divisional officer Pandarinathan led the farmers and temple authorities held talks with the police.
Farmers argue that the government should not take over the farm because they have been farming on lease for a long period. They stated that they would also make an appeal to Tamil Nadu's Chief Minister and ministers in this regard, urging the government to act in support of farmers.