Nearly two years have elapsed after the then Chief Minister K. Rosaiah laid the foundation stone for ISKCON-Kondaveedu Spiritual Heritage Revival Project and it has not yet been given physical possession of a single acre of land.
The Government issued G.O. No. 1108 on August 31, 2010 allotting 54 acres of land out of 150 acres asked by ISKCON. Through a letter issued by the district administration two months ago, 15 acres more was claimed to be allotted to ISKCON .
But, not even a single acre of land had so far been given to ISKCON’s possession due to the sheer negligence of district officials, said ISKCON President (Guntur & Vijayawada) Ram Murari Das.
Addressing mediapersons on the premises of Sri Krishna temple coming up at Mallareddy Nagar here on Tuesday, Mr. Murari Das said the land originally allotted for the project was arable and located far from the site where the iconic Krishna temple was planned to be constructed.
ISKCON wanted land to be given abutting the historic Vennamuddha Venugopala Swamy temple but that did not happen.
An assurance was given that farmers cultivating the land around the Venugopala Swamy temple would be convinced to shift to the lands allotted to ISKCON to facilitate construction of the temple but to no avail.
There had of late been misleading news reports that the ISKCON was delaying the project after getting valuable lands allotted for its project. These reports were baseless, he said.
ISKCON was ready to begin temple construction at any time and donors were waiting to provide funds but several donors seemed to have lost interest in the project due to the inordinate delay.
“Besides, pressure on us is increasing from within our own organization. There is likelihood of the project going away to some other place if the same situation continues,” Mr. Murari Das said.
