Visakhapatnam: Thousands of people, whose lands are in legal and administrative tangles, are waiting to hear from political parties before deciding on their choice of candidates and parties in the forthcoming assembly and Lok Sabha elections in Andhra Pradesh.
There are nearly 25,000 families, which have built their homes on temple lands over an extent of 9,068 acres in five revenue villages, popularly known as Panchagramas. They are Adavivaram, Vepagunta, Cheemalapalli, Venkatapuram and Purushothapuram. The houses of the families fall within the Bheemili, Visakhapatnam West, Visakhapatnam North and Pendurthi assembly constituencies.
The then Telugu Desam government issued a government order in 2000 on the temple lands. But the subsequent Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy government withdrew this GO in 2005. Since then, the issue has dragged on for a decade.
After coming to power in 2014, TD chief N. Chandrababu Naidu held his first cabinet meeting as chief minister in the Andhra University campus. He went on to announce that he would resolve the issue within the first 100 days of his government. His assurance did not find fruition till he laid down his office.
The present Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, during his pada yatra in Simhachalam on the eve of 2019 elections, promised to regularise the lands of the 25,000 families in 100 days.
“Both the governments have failed in resolve the issue,” Forum for Development of North Andhra general secretary Aja Sharma said. He has written several letters to current CM on the issue during the last two years.
Sharma said after coming to power, Jagan Mohan Reddy government issued a GO in 2019 announcing formation of a three-member committee to resolve the issue. The following year, another GO added three more members to the committee.
But the problem remains unresolved and is as it was 40 years ago.
Aja Sharma said the problem started in 1996 and 1997, when the then government issued pattas for the said 9,068 acres of land to Simhachalam Devasthanam. The Visakhapatnam RDO court and subsequently the AP High Court declared the action as invalid. The previous government ignored the High Court order and brought the lands under Section 22A, preventing land transactions.
The then Visakhapatnam collector Praveen Kumar submitted a report in 2017 stating that the Panchagrama lands are private as per Inam Abolition Act. Based on this report, Chandrababu Naidu proposed to regularise the lands when 2019 elections happened to be too near.
Former minister and Bheemili MLA Muttamsetti Srinivasa Rao explained that the issue of temple lands remains in the High Court following a petition filed by heads of various Mutts in the area.
“We are hoping for a positive outcome,” said Srinivasa Rao.
