Four-member committee probing extent of encroachment by Eatala

Based on the survey conducted on illegal structures and encroachments in the endowments lands, the committee examined the endowments and revenue records.

Hyderabad: The four-member committee of IAS officers constituted to probe encroachment of endowment lands by former Minister Eatala Rajender and his followers at Devarayamjal in Medchal-Malkajgiri district expedited inquiry to know the extent of lands encroached. The committee continued the probe for the fourth consecutive day at Sri Sitaramaswamy temple in Devarayamjal.

The panel headed by Panchayat Raj Commissioner M Raghunandan Rao examined the government orders issued by the State government in erstwhile Andhra Pradesh. Based on the survey conducted on illegal structures and encroachments in the endowments lands, the committee examined the endowments and revenue records. The survey was carried out by eight mandal level officers from the district.

With the help of survey, the committee members were believed to have got information about the illegal structures and encroachment of endowment lands along with the survey numbers. The inspection of 1,525 acres of temple lands in survey number 91 excluding the land that was given to the Indian Air Force was completed.

“Once we complete the detailed probe, the total extent of land that was encroached along with the illegal structures would be known,” an official said. It is learnt that benamis were behind these encroachments in Devarayamjal. “We will also try to find out the persons who were behind the benamis,” he said. The committee has already found that as many as 160 structures were come up in the temple lands without permission from officials concerned.

Meanwhile, the villagers of Devarayamjal said the lands that were encroached belong to Sitaramaswamy temple. The temple was constructed during Kakatiya dynasty and the land was allotted to the temple through Raamidi Pullaiah, who worked with the nawab during Nizam’s rule in 1925. Since then the land was in the name of Sitaramaswamy temple. The villagers said they were surprised to know as to how it was changed, and added that the godowns were constructed by Rajender’s benamis at his instance only. The other members of the committee were Prashant Jeevan Patil, Swetha Mohanty and Bharati Holikeri.

Eatala forcibly took over Dalits’ lands, says BJP leader

Telangana BJP leader Mothkupalli Narasimhulu on Thursday launched a blistering attack on the former Health Minister Eatala Rajender for forcibly taking over the lands of Dalits. “It is not the issue of self-respect of Rajender but the betrayal of soul,” he said while speaking to a vernacular news channel here. “It is shameful on the part of Rajender to say that he was fighting for self-respect after encroaching Dalits’ lands worth thousands of crores of rupees,” Narasimhulu, who recently recovered from Covid-19, said.

He said no one knows that it was Rajender, who was allegedly behind the entire episode. It was highly reprehensible on the part of Rajender, who says that he was poor and belongs to Backward Classes (BC) community, to encroach Dalits lands. He sought to know whether Rajender entered into politics to forcibly take assigned lands or render service to people. People would have supported Rajender if he fought on behalf of Dalits and demanded that he return the lands to Dalits.

“A leader should always live for people and die for them,” he said, stating Rajender was not a protagonist. Rajender should express gratitude to Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao for his entire life for making a BC leader as Minister.

Also Read

Eatala family flouted several land laws and rules

Govt appoints Officers’ Committee to probe into temple land encroachments in Devaryamjal

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