Tension prevails at Kothagudem’s Peddammagudi as Board of Trustees take oath

Suicide attempt by a couple of youths; protests by the locals and their detention by police marred the swearing in ceremony of Board of Trustees of Sri Kanaka Durga Ammavari Devasthanam (Peddammagudi) at KP Jagannathapuram near Paloncha in the district.

Kothagudem: The outcome of excessive political interference in Peddammagudi affairs and alleged turf war among the district ministers Bhatti Vikramarka and Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy was felt on Tuesday.

Suicide attempt by a couple of youths; protests by the locals and their detention by police marred the swearing in ceremony of Board of Trustees of Sri Kanaka Durga Ammavari Devasthanam (Peddammagudi) at KP Jagannathapuram near Paloncha in the district.

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A large number of police, led by Paloncha DSP Sathish Kumar, deployed at the temple at the request of temple executive officer N Rajani Kumari. As the officials engaged in the swearing in ceremony a group of men and women entered into arguments with police, who prevented them from entering into the temple.

Police have taken the protesting men and women along with the youths who attempted suicide by dousing themselves with kerosene into custody and taken to different police stations.

The EO stated that she was directed by higher officials to carry out the swearing in ceremony with the help of police as the residents of Kesavapuram and Jagannathapuram led by a Congress leader Gadham Narasimha Rao recently obstructed the ceremony.

The residents of the villages demanded proper representation to the locals in the temple Board of Trustees and have staged protests at the temple recently. They alleged that non-locals were given a place in the temple board.

The crux of the matter was the dispute between Bhatti Vikramarka and Srinivas Reddy, who wanted their followers to get a place in the board.

It was said that Srinivas Reddy managed to get a GO RT No: 66 cancelled. the GO appointed a Congress leader Jammula Rajashekar, a follower of the Deputy Chief Minister, and 13 others as the Board of Trustees.

Subsequently, on March 19, endowment principal secretary Shailaja Ramaiyer issued a GO RT No: 112 reconstituting the Board of Trustees and replacing Rajashekar by Balineni Nageswara Rao, whose name was proposed for the temple chairman post by Minister Srinivas Reddy’s follower, Khammam MP, R Raghuram Reddy as well as Kothagudem MLA K Sambasiva Rao.

Amidst high drama, eight persons and a priest took oath as the Board of Trustees while Balineni Nageswara Rao was elected as the temple chairman. In the whole episode Endowment Minister Konda Surekha, whose recommendation in favour of Rajashekar was set aside, remained a mute spectator to the discord among the district ministers.