VISAKHAPATNAM: Vigilance and Enforcement on Monday began probe into the irregularities in the lands belonging to Simhachalam temple and MANSAS Trust.
The government had ordered a vigilance inquiry into the issue as per the recommendations of a three-member committee.
Vigilance additional DSP Swaroopa Rani said two teams formed to conduct the probe visited Simhachalam and MANSAS Trust. “After inspecting the land records since 1954, they will find out if there are any irregularities and people involved in them,” she added.
On the first day, the teams verified the records at the devasthanam. The documents will be cross-checked with the records of endowments, revenue and registrar offices for any changes made in the land records.
She said the vigilance teams will take the help of revenue officials, if necessary, to study the records, and that the investigation is expected to be over in three months after which a detailed report will be submitted to the endowments commissioner.Swaroopa Rani observed that the enquiry will be primarily on the charges against the then executive officer and to find out if anyone other than he was involved in the irregularities.
Earlier, endowments principal secretary G Vani Mohan ordered an enquiry by the vigilance and enforcement wing into the unauthorised deletion of large extent of lands from the property register of the Varahalakshmi Narasimha Swamy Devasthanam, Simhachalam, and the irregular sale of lands and other irregularities in MANSAS Trust, Vizianagaram committed by then executive officer K Rama Chandra Mohan.
It might be recalled that the three-member committee, comprising deputy commissioner E Pushpavardhan, regional joint commissioner Brahmarambha and additional commissioner Chandra Kumar, had in its report stated that 862 acres were unofficially deleted from the property list of the Simhachalam devasthanam; and that there were irregularities in the sale of 54.70 acres of MANSAS Trust.