Hyderabad: PIL against land given to Sri Sarada peetha

Hyderabad: A public interest litigation has been filed before the Telangana High Court challenging the decision of the state government in allotting two acres of prime land at Kokapet in Ranga Reddy district at a nominal cost of Rs 1 per acre to the Dharmadhikari of Sri Sarada peetham, Visakhapatnam in AP.

Ch. Veera Swamy, the social worker from Lalapet who filed the PIL, challenges  the G.O.Ms.No.71 of  Revenue Department, which was allotted the two acres of  land in Survey No.240 (Sector V) of Kokapet Village, Gandipet Mandal, Ranga Reddy District to the Sri Sarada Peetham, Visakhapatnam.

The petitioner submitted that the value of the allotted land in the market is around Rs 50 crore per acre and  mentioned that  that the government is the trustee and custodian of the land which belongs to the people of the state. It has no authority to simply give away the land to persons of their choice by the impugned G.O.

He contended that there was no justification in giving away the valuable land for Rs 1/- per acre, as the beneficiary was  a private individual (peetham) which was not under the control of the government. “If the Government wants it for religious purposes, it could have allotted it to TTD or to the Yadagiri Laxminarasimha Swamy temple or to any such other temple owned and controlled by the state government,” the petitioner submitted.

He also stated that the government order had no reasons given as to why such valuable land is being donated at the nominal rate of Rs 1 per acre to a private entity. The Principal Secretary of the Revenue Department, the managing director of HMDA, the Ranga Reddy district collector, G. Kameswara Sarma and the dharmadhikari of the Sri Sarada Peetham were respondents to the petition.