Government is taking all measures to protect endowment land: Minister

VIJAYAWADA: The State government is taking all measures for the protection of endowments lands and properties in the State and enacted laws to punish those guilty of encroaching the endowments lands in the State, said Endowments Minister Kottu Satyanarayana on Monday.

He said the temples and trusts under the Endowments Department own 4.65 lakh acres in the State, out of which 1.44 lakh acres land was given for the lease.

Kottu Satyanarayana replied to a question asked by the members of Legislative Council Indukuri Raghu Raju and R Ramesh Yadav on the steps taken by the government for conservation of temple lands in the State in the Council on Monday.

Replying to a question during the Question Hour, the Endowments Minister said the government has filled up 59 Grade-3 posts in the Endowment Department and is taking measures for the protection of lands and properties.

He said the government is ready to appoint more staff and officials for the protection of lands. He said the Endowments Department has introduced many reforms and appointed State-level and district level committees to monitor the Endowments lands survey being conducted as part of the Sasvatha Bhuhakku and Parirakshana programme taken up by the State government.

He informed the Legislative Council that the legal department has been strengthened and efforts were on to increase the revenue on the lease of endowments lands in the State.

He said as per Section-83 of the Endowments Act, the Endowments Department with the support of the police can evict the encroachments and get back the property.

The Minister said the land grabbers and encroachers of Endowments land will be sentenced to eight years imprisonment and a penalty of Rs one lakh will be collected from them.

He informed the Council that efforts were on to provide free accommodation, free food and prasadam to the devotees of some temples.