Devaryamjal lands belong to temple: Panel
HYDERABAD: In a major shock to BJP MLA and former health minister Eatala Rajender, the official committee constituted to probe the alleged encroachments of Sri Seetha Rama Swamy temple in Devaryamjal in Shamirpet mandal of Medchal-Malkajgiri district, has submitted a report to the State government that 1,350 acres of encroached lands belong to the temple.
The committee recommended the State government to remove the encroachments in the lands and resume them.The State government had in May 2021 constituted a committee of officers headed by Panchayat Raj and Rural Development commissioner M Raghunandan Rao to investigate the alleged encroachments of endowment lands belonging to the Sri Seetha Rama Swamy temple at Devaryamjal village.
The allegation was that the former health minister and others encroached 1,521 acres of land of the Seetha Rama Swamy temple. The value of the encroached lands is around Rs 1,000 crore.Prashanth Jeevan Patil, the then district Collector of Nalgonda, Swetha Mohanty, the then Medchal Malkajgiri district Collector, and Mancherial district collector Bharathi Holikeri are the other members of the committee.
In its report submitted to the State government on Tuesday, the committee stated that the 1,350 acres belong to the temple and there are encroachments on these lands. “Remove the encroachments, resume the lands, and hand them over to the temple,” the committee recommended to the State government.
GO had named Eatala as encoacher
The GO issued while setting up the official committee, headed by panchayat Raj dept commissioner Raghunandan Rao, stated that former health minister Eatala Rajender and a few other individuals encroached the temple lands under benami names