VIJAYAWADA: The reported deletion of a large chunk of Simhachalam land from 22 A has stirred up a hornet’s nest. Tampering of records came to light when the temple authorities took up geo-fencing so as to protect the temple lands. However, during preliminary inquiry by the district officials, it was found that a large chunk of land was missing from the records of 2010 and 2016.
Acting on this, the endowment special commissioner has constituted a three-member committee comprising deputy commissioner E Pushpavardhan, regional joint commissioner Brahmarambha and additional commissioner Chandrakumar to probe the alleged irregularities in the lands of Simhachalam and MANSAS Trust. The commissioner surrendered the then executive officer Ramchandra Mohan to the government as prima facie his role was found in deletion of lands from records.
However, though tampering of records occurred in 2016, it did not come to light till 2021. Successive executive officers from 2016 to 2021 have reportedly failed to discharge their duties properly, sources said. They said the executive officers did not update property registers which is mandatory for every three years. Had they maintained property registers, the irregularities would have been detected much earlier.
Besides, technology was not used as geo-mapping and geo-survey of temple lands were not done. The geo-survey would have established the total extent of lands. Through auction of sand reaches, MANSAS got `2 crore. But the officials did not make efforts to map revenue through sand auctions in the last few years.
Meanwhile, the three-member committee visited MANSAS Trust office in Vizianagaram and inspected the land records. The committee completed the preliminary enquiry and it will submit its report to the commissioner in a sealed cover.
Auditing of MANSAS Trust records gathered pace as the trust officials have given the records to the district audit officials. Four teams comprising 27 personnel have been auditing the papers under the supervision of the district audit officer Hima Bindu. The teams are checking papers of five years though auditing has not been done for the past one and a half decades.