Panel to probe temple land encroachments in Shamirpet mandal

Former Minister Etala Rajender, others allegedly occupied over 1,521 acres worth more than Rs 1,000 crore, belonging to a temple

Hyderabad: The State government on Monday appointed a Committee of Officers headed by Panchayat Raj and Rural Development Commissioner M Raghunandan Rao to probe the alleged encroachment of endowment lands belonging to Sri Seetha Rama Swamy temple at Devaryamjal village in Shamirpet mandal of Medchal Malkajgiri district.

It has been alleged that former Minister Etala Rajender and other individuals occupied a large area of over 1,521 acres belonging to the temple worth more than Rs 1,000 crore.

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The other members of the Committee of Officers are Nalgonda District Collector Prashanth Jeevan Patil, Mancherial District Collector Bharathi Holikeri and Medchal Malkajgiri District Collector Swetha Mohanty.

Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar, in his orders issued here on Monday, instructed the committee to conduct a detailed enquiry and submit a report with details of the encroachers and the extent of land encroached upon, nature of encroachment and the present usage, details of documents possessed by the encroachers, details of permissions, if any, issued by any government body, violations of existing government regulations, extent of vacant land, extent of land under encroachment by the benamis and the influential persons behind them, and extent of revenue loss to the temple.

The committee was directed to submit its report at the earliest and recommend necessary action in this regard.

The State government ordered the enquiry into the allegations of land encroachments following several complaints lodged by locals about large scale encroachments and illegal transactions of temple lands in Devaryamjal. The same was reported in a few newspapers on May 2, stating that certain individuals had unlawfully occupied large extents of temple lands in their own names as well as in benami names, defrauding such high value properties.

It was also reported that large constructions had taken place on these lands without any valid permissions and in utter violation of several laws.

Committee of Officers begins work

The Committee of Officers headed by Panchayat Raj and Rural Development commissioner M Raghunandan Rao commenced its investigation into the alleged encroachment of endowment lands belonging to Sri Seetha Rama Swamy temple at Devaryamjal village in Shamirpet mandal of Medchal Malkajgiri district on Monday.

The officials visited the village and held consultations with the officials concerned. They started division of work for conducting a detailed inquiry into the complaints received from the locals. A meeting was convened at Malkajgiri MRO office on allocation of work, staff and issues to be investigated. The committee is likely to conduct field visit and also interact with the complainants as well as others commencing from Tuesday.

 

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