BC panel orders probe, seeks report in 15 days

Wanaparthy: The National Backward Classes (BC) Commission issued notices to Telangana State Revenue Chief Secretary, Director General of Police and Superintendent of Police of Wanaparthy district on Monday, directing them to conduct a detailed enquiry into the allegations of grabbing of endowment lands and lands belonging to poor SC/ST/BCs by some elements in Pebbair Mandal and submit a report on the same to the commission in 15 days.

It has been a long pending issue with regard to land relating to the weekly market yard in Pebbair municipality area. In fact, the market yard land belongs to the Venugopala Swami Temple and comes under the control of Endowment Department. The land is temporarily being used for setting up stalls for weekly markets.

However, taking this as an advantage, some unscrupulous elements including the traders and real-estate mafia, eyeing to grab the endowment land, had colluded with the local Revenue Department officials and allegedly are encroaching the endowment land.

"In Pebbair Municipality, there is a 15-acre open land each in survey number 392A and 405A respectively belonging to The Venugopala Swami Temple, which is being used for weekly market purpose, but some people who are trying to grab the land, have colluded with local authorities and had obtained Open Residential Space (ORS) certificate on the land and are trying to take over the land illegally.

Despite our several representations to the local authorities no one is responding to it. As a last resort, we have approached the BC Commission for the protection of the endowment land in Pebbair," said Muhavari Buddaram, a member of Forum for Social Justice.

In view of this, the National BC commission has issued notices to the Chief Secretary (Revenue), Director General of Police, Telangana, and Superintendent of Police Wanaparthy to initiate a detailed enquring into the matter and submit a report on the same to the BC Commission in Delhi within 15 days.

It is learnt that when the issue of land grabbing cropped up earlier during the tenure of Usha Rani as the District Collector of undivided Mahbubnagar, the Collector had even dismissed the ORS, however once again the land mafia with the support of local political leaders are allegedly trying to grab the lands belonging to the temple.

Concerned over this, the temple committee has approached the Social Forum for Justice, which in turn lodged a complaint with the National BC Commission. The commission directed the concerned officials to submit a report on the same.

It is also leant that the land mafia through ORS is trying to register the endowment land on the name of the temple priest and later planning to sell it off to others for other purposes.

At present, the 30 acres of land is being used for weekly market yard (Pebbair Santa), wherein more than 1,000 small traders and businessmen are making a livelihood by setting up stalls on a weekly basis.

In fact, the Pebbair Santa is very famous in the entire Telangana and Andhra Pradesh as many farmers, vendors, cattle sellers, livestock sellers, implement sellers and others from various places come over here and do their business.

If this land is not protected, then it will go into the hands of real estate mafia who will later on sell it off and make huge money out of it.

The Temple Committee members and members of Pebbair market yard Gonela Bal Swami, Vijay Verdean Reddy, Kishore, Dayakar Reddy, Mekala Yellaiah, Pabba Shekhar Goud, Gonela Sahadev, Mekala Sahadev, Yella Swami, Bucchanna, Nagaraju, Laxmi Kantha Reddy and others urged the government to immediately look into the matter and save the temple land and protect the Pebbair Santa.