evidence: K.S. Alagiri, TNCC president, said the decision to give pattas to encroachers was wrong. "That will only encourage squatters to take over lands without paying for them. It will lead to a situation where people will think if we encroach on some space, it will be regularised eventually." [...] The official said a majority of the encroached properties retrieved belonged to different temples in Tiruchi district. Eviction orders were issued by the HR&CE department in 2018 with respect to 71 cases. In the current year, orders for eviction of encroached properties had been issued in 250 cases in the region. In some cases, the alleged encroachers go for an appeal to the department or file a case in the court, which prolongs the retrieval exercise, said sources. [...] Steps have also been taken to regularise group encroachers by providing them land on rent and handing them no objection certificates for obtaining water and power connections. This has been done for those who have been living for more than 30 years in the same location and as a group are subject to conditions, including payment of rent in instalments and donation of 10 months rent to the temple. Accordingly, 6,159 encroachers who had occupied 300.06 acres of land were regularised as tenants, an official pointed out.