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Devaryamjal land encroachment: More illegal structures come to light

Four separate teams took up the investigation and identified a total of 160 illegal structures including warehouses and guest houses.

By Telangana Today

Published Date - 5 May 2021, 09:16 PM

Devaryamjal land encroachment: More illegal structures come to light

Hyderabad: More illegal structures have come to light in the ongoing investigation into the Devaryamjal endowment lands issue in Medchal Malkajgiri district on Wednesday.

The Committee of Officers comprising four IAS officers continued with its probe into allegations made against former Minister Etala Rajender and they examined the lands pertaining to Sri Seetha Rama Swamy temple. Four separate teams took up the investigation and identified a total of 160 illegal structures including warehouses and guest houses.

The officers team led by Panchayat Raj and Rural Development commissioner M Raghunandan Rao along with Medchal Malkajgiri in-charge collector Swetha Mohanty, Nalgonda district collector Prashanth Jeevan Patil and Mancherial district collector Bharathi Holikeri visited the lands on Wednesday. The officers committee is collecting comprehensive information pertaining to 1,521 acres of endowment lands spread across total of 91 survey numbers.

The officers committee which collected details of illegal structures (warehouses) on Tuesday, inspected the vacant plots of revenue lands on Wednesday. The officials also inquired into the illegal constructions taken up by the land encroachers by erecting fencing around the vacant lands belonging to the temple. They confirmed that about 90 percent of the survey of land and illegal structures was completed using DGPS (Differential Global Positioning System). A team of eight Mandal-level officers is conducting the survey, using the DGPS. Tahsildars are also verifying the land documents pertaining to farmers who have lands in Devaryamjal and collected documents pertaining to certain survey numbers.

Meanwhile, the officials of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) are investigating the role of panchayat secretaries who served in Devaryamjal previously and served notices to five panchayat secretaries to attend the enquiry being held at the Thumkunta municipal office where two of them attended the enquiry. They were asked over the action initiated to stall illegal constructions in the endowment lands during their respective tenures.