KAKINADA: Fishermen from Parlopet area oppose the proposal of the civic authorities to demolish Goddess Sathemma Thalli temple for construction of houses in G+2 shape in 'B' Block under 'House for all' scheme.
The fisherfolk contention is that it is a very old temple where every year, they celebrate 'Jathara' (annual festival) spending nearly Rs.40 lakh. They say that there is also a burial ground in the area earmarked for construction of houses. The 12th ward corporator Tummala Sunitha said that nearly 3,000 families offer puja at their Goddess Sathemma Thalli temple. She added that it was their responsibility to ensure the protection of the temple. The government should honour their sentiments and shelve the plans to demolish the temple. Civic personnel, according to sources, attempted to demolish the temple on Friday. The fishermen managed to prevent the temple getting demolished by the officials.
Kakinada Municipal Corporation (KMC) has decided to construct 3,600 houses under the housing scheme in the area spread over 47 acres of land. Telugu Desam leader Tummala Ramesh said that when Mr Aleem Basha was the civic commissioner, he had promised to allocate 17 acres of land to fishermen community and to ensure that the temples and the burial ground are not encroached upon. The officials want to construct houses at the burial ground which is undemocratic and unjust, he said. He added that Kakinada MLA Vanamadi Venkateswara Rao told them that one acre land would be earmarked as the burial ground after completion of the scheme. The KMC City Planner Mr Kalisha said that it was necessary to demolish the temple for the construction of houses.
Meanwhile, 47 acres of land belongs to Kakinada Port where the port employees have requested the government to allocate it to them for housing in the name of a society. Officials have bargained with them and agreed to allocate three acres of land to them. The employees moved court and the case is pending with the court. The revenue department has given the site to KMC as an 'advance possession'. But, the Port Department had not given the land to Revenue Department till Friday', said a port official. High Court advocate M. Srivijay said that the ‘advance possession’ of the land was undemocratic and the officials have not earmarked boundaries for the land so far even though it has been assigned.
