While commercial structures are the foremost encroachers of the city’s footpaths and roads, illegal religious shrines come a close second, revealed the audit report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India. 

Unlike encroachments by commercial firms, religious structures are tougher to remove as the sensitivity over the communal factor deters officials from removing them. Across the city, it is a common sight to see devotees lining up on pavements that are home to small shrines, as the priest conducts the rituals. Sometimes, the throng spills over on to the carriageway obstructing the traffic. 

Religious structures, according to a CAG report, are the second-most common encroachments that eat up the city’s pavements and roads. The Madras City Municipal Corporation Act, 1919, prohibits any obstruction or encroachment in and over any street or public place that comes under the Corporation. 

However, the CAG report pointed out that the civic body did not maintain any updated data on encroachments, obstructions and projections, making it tough to act on these violations. CAG’s audit teams conducted a field inspection in 24 out of 211 bus route roads of sampled Corporation zones during October 2017, and noticed rampant encroachments on 18 roads. 

“126 of the encroachments were occupying the footpaths blocking pedestrian movements and three were occupying footpath as well as carriageway affecting pedestrian movement and vehicular traffic,” stated the report. 

An example is the Nagathamman Muneeswaran temple in Nandanam which started as a small shrine more than 65 years ago. Two years ago, the current structure – a permanent one with a colourful gopuram – sprang up. 

On Tuesdays and Fridays, close to 300 devotees visit the temple to offer prayers and on special days, the number goes up to almost a thousand, often spilling over on the busy Anna Salai. 

On NSC Bose Road, a shrine juts out of the expansive, well laid pavement where devotees mingle with advocates hurrying to their appointments. Jayaram, an advocate, said that the authorities should have curbed the shrine from being built. 

“It is common to see the shrine’s caretakers cook and wash clothes on the pavement and even raise chickens,” he said. Activist Nakkeeran Pugazhendhi, who has been fighting for the removal of an illegal religious structure in Ramapuram, said that constructing such shrines was the modus operandi to encroach the roads. Because, though illegal, it is difficult to remove a religious structure. 

“The temple had encroached the road and a poramboku land. It often happens in collusion with the officials. In this case, despite many warnings by the Corporation and filing FIR with the Police, the construction of the permanent structure went on. Finally, an FIR against the enforcement officer of Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments department resulted in construction being temporarily suspended,” said the activist. 

The CAG had pulled up the Corporation for failing to remove these encroachments. However, officials point out that fears of a backlash often force them to let these structures thrive. “We remove commercial encroachments periodically but have not removed any religious shrine, because there are many difficulties associated with such a move. There is a fear that a communal angle will crop up,” said an official. 

An admission by the District Revenue Officer of Coimbatore in September 2017, as mentioned in the CAG report, confirmed this, stating, “The encroachments by religious structures were in existence for many years and any hasty action would result in law and order problem.” 

The CAG responded that this reply was untenable as the district authorities had not involved the public – as mentioned in state government’s policy for removal of religious encroachment, following a direction by the Supreme Court. The policy stipulates that eviction of existing religious structures in public places should be done through persuasion and motivation of public. 

Former Mayor M Subramaniam, who had actively orchestrated the removal of illegal religious structures on roads, said that public participation in such an exercise is critical. “Before 1984, when Santha Sheela Nair was Corporation Commissioner, many illegal religious structures encroaching the roads were removed. 

Now, there are not that many religious structures encroaching public spaces. On my street too, I have removed many such illegal religious structures by making the public understand that it was done for the greater good," he said.