Decision on regularisation of Simhachalam land faulted

Visakhapatnam: The decision taken by the state cabinet on regularisation of lands belonging to the Simhachalam temple board which had been been occupied by public has come under bitter criticism.

The state knew of the encroachment after a survey conducted in 2008.

There are demands that a fresh survey needs to be done, along with regularisation, according to the survey results.

Speaking to reporters here on Monday, CPM state secretariat member Ch. Narasinga Rao has also found fault with the government’s decision to regularise land below 60 sq. yards free of cost without collecting any penalty.

He demanded that the state government should regularise at least 100 square yards of land without collecting penalty.

Thousands of acres spread in Adivivar-am,Vepagunta, Chemala-palli, Purushottapuram and Venkatapuram, which are called as ‘Pancha Gramalu’, were given to farmers for cultivation by the Temple Board on a nominal fees.

Farmers earned their livelihood from cultivating cashew, mango crops. In course of time as the city developed and expanded, these farmers began selling their lands to real estate brokers. Later, the government started its efforts to restore the land to Temple Board. Thereafter, there was a furore from those who bought these sites.

In 2000, the TD government issued GO No: 578 to regularise the houses and buildings. According to the GO one third of the market rate should be paid for regularisation.

“Its unjust that the state had decided to collect 70 pc of the market value of the land in 1998 and also 9 pc interest from then to regularise land in more than 60 sq yards and less than 300.”