Special Act to protect temple lands : Gade

Endowment Minister Gade Venkata Reddy on Tuesday directed the officials to take steps to protect the endowment lands from encroachments.

Talking to reporters after emerging out of review meeting convened under the chairmanship of Chief Minister K Rosaiah at the Secretariat, the Minister said that the Chief Minister has directed the officials to take steps to recover lands from encroachers.

Mr Venkata Reddy said that 417 acres of Simhachalam Nrusimha Swamy temple lands were encroached by illegal elements and a case was pending in this regard in the High Court.

At present 35,000 acres of temple lands across the state were under the encroachment, the Minister stated. A special Act will be brought soon to protect the temple lands, besides an administrative tribunal will be formed to recover encroached temple land, Mr Venkata Reddy stated.

He asked the officials to identify the encroachments in different categories and submit a report in two months.

The Minister also directed the officials to identify the boundaries and construct compound walls around the endowment lands.

Reacting on the Telangana Telugu Desam Forum decision to take the battle to New Delhi by staging a ‘dharna' near AICC president Sonia Gandhi's residence on October 25, if she fails to accept its memorandum demanding separate Telangana, he condemned the statement of leaders and termed it as unwarranted and unjust.

Mr Venkata Reddy said the Telangana leaders should not expose the regional sentiments at this juncture as the Srikrishna Commission will be submitting its report by the year-end.