Rama, Rama! Bhadradri temple lands usurped

1,149 acres out of 1,347 acres temple land under encroachment

​Kothagudem: Sri Seetaramachandra Swamy Devastanam owns officially 1,347.27 acres of land spread in two Telugu States.

However, nearly 1,149.7 acres of land remains under encroachment. In essence, the temple gets revenue of only Rs 19 lakh per annum from the tenant farmers, which is a pittance.

Since the land is spread in the two Telugu states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, it has become very difficult for the officials to protect the land from encroachers.

As per records, though the Devastanam owns 1,347.27 acres, only 155.90 acres of land is cultivated by tenant farmers. In addition, about 41.67 acres of vacant land is under the control of the Devastanam.

Though the Devastanam owns 299.13 acres in Bhadradri Kothagudem, Khammam and Medak districts, only 32.94 acres is cultivated by tenant farmers. The Devastanam controls 23.45 acres while 242.75 acres under encroachment.

Likewise, the Devastanam has 1,048.14 acres of land in Krishna, Guntur, Prakasam, Kurnool and two Godavari districts out of which 122.96 acres is under tenancy and 906.26 acres is under encroachment. The Devastanam controls only 18.22 acres.

Surprisingly, more than 900 acres situated in Purushottapatnam in Etapaka mandal in East Godavari district remains under
encroachment.

It has been alleged that the lack of supervision by the officials resulted in encroachment in most of the places. Some of the officials who worked here even did not know the details of the land owned by the Devastanam.

Executive officers like SS Chandrasekhar Azad and K Ramachandramohan have succeeded to some extent to identify the land and even taken protective measures.

The then united AP Government had even attempted to dispose of the 900 acres situated at Purushottapatnam in the agency area by categorising them.

However, the 1/70 Act prescribes that the land situated in the agency area should be transacted among the Girijans only. Due to that rule, the government could not dispose of the land then.

Now, the Telangana government is attempting to sell the land. One has to wait and watch how far the government would succeed in this endeavour. Likewise, there are also efforts to sell the land situated elsewhere in the two Telugu states.

Reacting to the issue, Endowment Minister Indrakaran Reddy stated that severe action would be taken against people who usurped the lands of Bhadrachalam Devastanam.

He said that he had already given instructions to the district collectors all over the State to identify the temple lands through a comprehensive survey and issue pattadar passbooks in the name of respective temples.

He said that he had written to the Andhra Pradesh government regarding the 900 acres of land at Purushottapatnam and awaiting response from them.

Bhadrachalam RDO Sivanarayana Reddy told The Hans India that he would extend full cooperation to protect the temple lands.

Executive Officer T Ramesh Babu told The Hans India that the Devastanam has been striving hard to protect the temple lands situated in eleven districts. He warned that action would be initiated against anyone who encroached temple lands.

After the division of the state, 900 acres of land belonging to Devastanam situated at only 3km from the temple has now remained in Andhra Pradesh. The temple is getting revenue of only Rs 19 lakh from the tenants, he added.

Bhadrachalam MLA Sunnam Rajaiah lamented that the poor supervision by the higher officials resulted in alienation of temple lands.

Congress leader TV Ramana told The Hans India that the government should provide protection to the temple lands situated in Andhra Pradesh.

The 900 acres situated only 3km away from the temple should be brought back to Telangana for the development of the temple, he demanded.

According to him, these lands could be used for constructing rest houses, cottages for the Devastanam. He appealed to the politicians and the officials to strive to bring back the land under the fold of Telangana.