Rama temple land takeover for TSIIC project runs aground

Hyderabad: The land acquisition of Sita Ramachandra Swamy temple at Shabad in Rangareddy district for the Telangana State Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (TSIIC) is running into rough weather.

According to Endowments Department officials, the temple has 1148.12 acres of land in survey numbers from 1983 to 1973. Earlier the State government decided to develop an industrial park (for EVs) for which it sought over 800 acres of temple land by way of acquisition.

However, some of the lands were already encroached on by some influential people, the sources said. However, the land acquisition process has gone ahead reportedly due to the pressure from the government and TSIIC.

The issue belongs to the lands about the Sri Sita Ramachandra Swamy temple at Sitarampur in Shabad mandal. The temple has 1148.12 acres of land in survey numbers from 1983 to 1973.

The government decided to have an industrial park in these lands and found that 800 acres were encroached on by local farmers and registered their names in revenue records under the processor’s column and the name of the temple in the Pattadar column.

The TSIIC and Revenue Department organised ‘Grama Sabha’ in March, which was opposed by the farmers who were cultivating in these lands.

Some of the occupiers were paid Rs 21 lakh per acre.

Now, the endowments department has come forward and said that this land acquisition was illegal and taken up without their notice and wanted the compensation to be paid in the name of the temple deity. In a report submitted by Assistant Commissioner Rangareddy, it was mentioned that the manager of the temple stated that the TSIIC authorities have requested permission to acquire the temple lands to an extent of 1148.12 acres.

Curiously, the differences between the TSIIC and endowments are now at loggerheads following the change of the guard in Telangana.

Aggrieved by this acquisition, the Rashtriya Vanara Sena filed a PIL urging the court to direct the department to evict the encroachers from the temple lands and restore them to the temple. The Vanara Sena President N Rami Reddy said that temples were the soul of Hindu culture and the core of spiritual ethos.

In the Telangana State, there are a large number of sacred temples and many temples were dying without a single pooja taking place.

The State government should act as a trustee to protect temples and their temple lands donated by numerous devotees.

In Telangana, especially in the past several years, an enormous scale of endowment lands worth thousands of crores become easy targets for land grabbers and the ruling party leaders. Rami Reddy said that they have urged the court for an advance hearing after the matter was posted for March.