Chennai,  The Tamil Nadu government has reclaimed land worth Rs 160 crore of the Kancheepuram Ekambareswar temple from a trust that ran the Seetha Kingston House Matriculation Higher Secondary School.

The Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) department on Sunday took possession of the 32 ground property on Poonamalle High Road at Kilpauk in Chennai. This land is a part of a 141 ground land of the Kancheepuram Ekambareswar temple.

The trust had leased 44.5 grounds of the temple of which 12.5 grounds was returned to the temple.

Ground is a measure used in Tamil Nadu, where one ground equals 2.5 cents of land.

The HR & CE Minister P.K. Sekar Babu and the Department Commissioner J. Kumaragurubaran received the papers of the temple property from the trust officials on Sunday.

Babu told IANS, "We have taken steps to retrieve the remaining area from other tenants who had even sub-leased the property. There is litigation over two properties and we are expecting to retrieve the land within six months."

The HR&CE said in a statement that the Calavala Cunnan Chetty Charities trust had taken 44.5 grounds of the land of the Ekambareswar Temple on Poonamalle High Road, Kilpauk for a 99-year lease and was running the Seetha Kingston school there.

The HR&CE department moved the court for the retrieval of the land and the Madras High Court ruled in favour of the HR&CE department.

The value of the remaining 96.5 grounds of land is estimated to be Rs 483 crore and the department, according to the minister will go in for litigation and will retrieve the land within six months.

Subletting of temple properties was rampant in Tamil Nadu and the DMK government after assuming office had called upon the HR&CE department to take steps for the retrieval of the temple land given on lease.

There is a loss of around 40,000 acres of temple land across Tamil Nadu when the land details of 1984-85 were compared with that of 2019-20.

The government has ordered to upload all details of the temple properties including land and other assets online so that it comes in the public domain.