Ongole: Plea to protect temple land from encroachment

Ongole: The chairman of the Sri Prasanna Chennakesava Swamy temple at Kesavaswamy Pet in Ongole, EdupalliGurunatha Rao complained to the Ongole taluk police on Sunday that the land that belongs to the temple is being encroached. He requested them to take action on the land- grabber.

According to Gurnatha Rao, Sri Kasivisweswara Swamy temple, which is under the administration of the Sri Prasanna Chennakesava Swamy temple has 23.52 acres of land worth Rs 200 crore. He said that the disputes over the land were ruled out by the order of the Supreme Court in civil appeal 1075-1077/2017, which affirmed the ownership of the temple. However, a person, MandavaLakshmaiah is constructing a road by encroaching the land worth Rs 8 crore that belongs to the temple, he complained.

Gurunatha Rao explained that by the time he along with the trustees and other locals tried to question the driver of the JCB in the land, the driver ran away without giving any information. He said that the people nearby informed him that MandavaLakshmaiah has announced a real estate venture and claimed that they have rights for a passage way through the temple land. The temple chairman informed the police that the endowments department has already submitted proposals to the government to construct a compound wall to the land to stop encroachments and they are waiting for approvals.

He requested the police to take action on MandavaLakshmaiah for alleged land grabbing and under other criminal sections to stop others with malefic intent from coming forward and encroach the place.