Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao told the Assembly on Tuesday that he has been speaking to his Andhra Pradesh counterpart on the issue of taking back some villages of the erstwhile Khammam district that were transferred to A.P. after bifurcation of the State in exchange of a few villages.
In response to CPI (M) member Sunnam Rajaiah’s mention about 935 acres of Bhadrachalam temple lands ending up in AP following transfer of villages and suggestion to take back at least five gram panchayats to resolve the issue, the Chief Minister said the process was on and the State Government was hopeful about the exchange by taking up the matter with the Centre since the proposals had the consent of the two States.
He, however, suggested that nobody should have any apprehensions over the Bhadrachalam temple lands lying in AP as it was a practice. Citing an example, KCR noted that Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) has lands in Telangana, Tamil Nadu and elsewhere too. Earlier, there were some lighter moments when the Chief Minister said it was good to see that a senior CPI(M) leader was speaking about god, in response to Mr. Rajaiah’s concerns about temple lands.
