The temple lands belonging to Sri Veera Venkata Satyanarayana Swami temple in Annavaram— one of the most popular temples in Andhra Pradesh — are in safe custody of the temple authorities and there are no legal complications or encroachment by private persons.
However, Annavaram temple has adopted Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple in Korukonda, which is popular in Godavari districts and it is facing legal disputes with regard to endowments and Inam lands.
The abode of Sri Satyanarayana Swami is on the top of Ratnagiri hills (two hills) with an extent of 500 acres. The temple had leased out about 100 acres in different parts of the district, including in Kakinada Rural mandal, Sankhavaram and other places. “Our temple lands as well as ornaments of the God and Goddess are in safe custody of temple authorities. There are no legal disputes as far as our lands are concerned,” said M. Jitendra, Executive Officer of the temple.
Legal disputes
Temple and Inam lands of Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple, which is on one of the hillocks, have been involved in legal disputes for a long time.
Kataya Vema Reddy and Mummidi Nayakudu of Reddy Raja dynasty have donated 5,500 acres of land. The British rulers notified 1,613 acres, including 425 acres of Poramboku (Revenue) land and 330 acres-exclusively for maintenance of temple between the years 1836-84 and prepared inventory by including them in “43-Register”.
When the Andhra Pradesh Inams (Abolition and Conversion into Ryotwari) Act, 1956 came into force, the entire 1,613 acres went into the hands of Revenue and Endowment Departments.
“The actual dispute started when an Amendment was brought to the 1953 Inam Act by the Andhra Pradesh government in 2013. All the lands given as Inam to us were stopped by government and about 400 farmers in Korukonda knocked the doors of High Court,” said Rongala Srinivas, farmer of Korukonda village and petitioner who took up legal battle against the government.
The entire Korukonda village, including residential area in 14 Panchayat wards, government offices went into the hands of Endowments and Revenue departments.
THIS CAN BE A BOX
No registrations, marriages
As per the directions of the High Court, the district administration stopped all the registrations in Korukonda Panchyat in compliance with 43-Register from the year 2016. According to Mr. Srinivas, the court gave permission to individual farmers to register their lands which were included in inventory as Inam lands.
On the other hand, the legal battle has been going on for registration, sale and to lease out the lands by farmers. “We have no right to sell or lease out lands in the village for almost three years, and marriages of boys and girls are being postponed due to the blanket ban on the sale. We have to beg or borrow even to meet medical emergencies,” said Kunche Narasimha Rao of Korukonda.
