HR&CE Dept. to retrieve land from theme park
The Hindu
‘Will wage legal battle if necessary’
Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Minister P.K. Sekarbabu on Thursday said the Department would wage a legal battle, if necessary, to retrieve land belonging to the Kasi Vishwanathar and Venugopalaswami temple in Kancheepuram district.
Addressing mediapersons after a review meeting, he said 177 acres of land was willed by a zamindar in 1884 to the temple. However, in 1951, a revenue clerk classified them as anaadheenam or poromboke due to want of documents. The Department applied for patta in 1983, and after over 15 years, the Revenue Department turned down its request.
“We went for two more appeals. However, those were turned down too, with the latest one being in 2021, when the Collector said the land was poromboke. My question is if it is poromboke land, should the Revenue Department not take over the land? We have gone on appeal to the Commissioner of Land Administration, and will leave no stone unturned to get the land back,” Mr. Sekarbabu said.
The election authorities are gearing up for the counting of votes cast in the simultaneous elections to Lok Sabha and Assembly seats in Andhra Pradesh, scheduled to be held on June 4. The Collectors and Election Officers of Visakhapatnam, Anakapalli and Alluri Sitharama Raju (ASR) districts said on May 23 (Thursday) that their teams were ready for the counting of votes.
Responding to the prolonged water scarcity, the residents of the area took to the streets in protest on Wednesday. The protest, which drew attention to their plight, stopped only after the intervention of the police. It was not until 1.30 p.m. that a 4000-litre tanker was finally delivered by BWSSB, providing relief to the water-starved residents.