Chennai, Feb 9 (BPNS)

The Hindu Munnani has filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in Madras High Court stating that the government of Tamil Nadu was deliberately targeting temples during the eviction drives of encroachments.

T. Elango,  spokesman of the Tamil Nadu unit of the Hindu Munnani in Public Interest Litigation (PIL) alleged that about 200 temples were demolished by the authorities in recent months while evicting encroachments under the National Disaster Management Act.

The Hindu Munnani spokesperson cited certain examples of temples that were evicted and sought for a scheme for regularization or relocation of religious structures built on ‘Poramboke ‘ land or land without proper title deeds.

The petitioner alleged that the demolition of temples was a pure act of discrimination against the Hindus and the Hindu temples and that the entire state machinery was bent upon this.

Acting Chief Justice of the Madras High Court, Munishwar Nath Bhandari, and Justice Bharath Chakravarthy directed the petitioner to file a detailed affidavit on the evictions.  

Additional Advocate General( AAG) of Tamil Nadu government, J Ravindran made it clear that the government did not show any discrimination and that the principle of unity in diversity was being followed in the state of Tamil Nadu.

The AAG also blamed certain people for trying to portray pseudo pictures against the Tamil Nadu government that it was against the Hindus. He also charged that certain Information Technology Wings were employed for this purpose and said that the court cannot be used for furthering this purpose.