The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Task force to protect temple lands urged

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Oct 09, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Task force to protect temple lands urged

By Our Special Correspondent

TIRUPATI. Oct. 8. The BJP State party secretary and convenor of the party's "Temple Lands Protection Cell" on Friday alleged that the Endowments Department had, during the last six months, lost two lakh acres of land belonging to various temples and mutts worth about Rs. 1,000 crores.

Probe sought

Talking to mediapersons he alleged that the lands were either unauthorisedly occupied by land-grabbers or lost due to manipulation and machinations of alleged vested interests in the department. He cited two major endowment cases which the Government lost in the recent times - the Tirupati-Hathiramji Mutt case and the Tallapaka lands case. The BJP leader demanded constitution of a judicial enquiry to restore the lands to the department. He said the cell would come out with a detailed report soon and demanded creation of a task force to protect temple lands and buildings.

Mr. Prabhakar alleged that out of four lakh acres of land owned by the Endowments Department in the State, 1.25 lakh acres were under illegal occupation while more were involved in protracted litigation. He called upon the Government to constitute a special court in the matter.

`Temple banks'

Mr. Prabhakar favoured leading temples of the State floating their own banks. He said the department did not have proper information of the landed properties, buildings etc supposed to be under its control.

The member of the cell and district general secretary, B. Chandra Reddy, the State council members -- Dhananjayulu Naidu and M.R. Raja -- were present.

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