TS plans to sell away temple lands in AP

Hyderabad: The State government is mulling to dispose off the TS temple lands located in Andhra Pradesh. According to the sources in Endowment Department, it is finding it difficult to protect the lands from encroachments.

For instance, a ‘C’ category Sita Ramaswamy temple in the erstwhile Warangal district has about 9 acres of land in Guntur district. Similarly, the Jogulamba temple in Gadwal, which attracts more number of pilgrims from Andhra Pradesh, has about 4 acres of land in Kurnool.

The famous Bhadrachalam temple has about 1,048 acres of land located in the East and West Godavari, Guntur, Krishna, Prakasam and Kurnool districts. Out of this, nearly 900 acres of land located in Purushottapatnam in East Godavari district has been encroached.

Speaking to The Hans India, a senior official from the State Endowment Department, said that it would be difficult to sell the lands at Purushottapatnam as they fall under Act 1 of 70 and fall under Agency area.

Lands in plains and those in the vicinity of urban areas like Guntur are facing threat of encroachment. “Houses have come up all around the Jogulamba temple lands in Kurnool district and it would be difficult for the department to protect them,” the official said.

It is against this backdrop that the State government has given its nod to dispose off four acres each in Guntur and Kurnool through public auction. GO has to be issued in this regard. Similarly, the government had asked the department to identify the temple lands in Andhra Pradesh and elsewhere, facing encroachment problem.

There are also some temple lands within Telangana State which are under tenancy and are giving meagre returns. The ED has been asked to come up with an action plan to improve the revenue and also protect them from encroachments. According to officials over 14,500 acres of temple land has been encroached upon in the State.

By V R C Phaniharan