Hyderabad: Seven years on, KCR yet to answer Lal Darwaza Simhavahini temple's prayer for land

Hyderabad: It has been seven years since the Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao promised the expansion of Lal Darwaza Simhavahini Temple in Old City; however, the Committee still waits for the authorities to take up acquisition of properties for having bigger premises.

In 2014, during his visit to the temple during the Bonalu festival in Lal Darwaza Simhavahini Temple in Old City, the Chief Minister promised to take up expansion of the temple to make that as a memorable place after offering silk clothes to Mahankali Ammavaru.

It was the first Bonalu festival after separate Telangana was carved out of Andhra Pradesh. It has been seven years since then but there were no concrete steps taken in this regard.

According to the temple committee members, the premise is becoming small and the number of devotees has been going up every year and during the festival days more than one lakh devotees throng the temple. In the 100 sq. yards of area lakhs of devotees come for darshan.

During February 2020, the AIMIM floor leader Akbaruddin Owaisi demanded the Chief Minister to expand the temple stating that the temple has a history of over 100 years and lakhs of people visit during Bonalu but the small premise is causing a lot of inconvenience to the people.

The chief minister then had said that the temple would be developed with Rs 10 Crore and the people who lose properties in the vicinity would be compensated by providing 800 sq. yards of land at Fareed Market.

The temple committee members said that the property owners adjacent to the temple were ready to hand over the land but only when they are given the assurance of compensation.

"Some of the property owners are ready to vacate and infact they also had a talk about the same with the local MRO but the big question is who will take the responsibility of rehabilitation," said a temple committee member. About 800 to 1,000 sq yards would be enough for the temple expansion.

If the government can take the issue and expedite the process, the temple would have a bigger premise, he added.

The committee members procured a piece of land behind the temple for taking up activities during the festival like meeting and other programmes.