VIJAYAWADA: Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for Endowments Kottu Satyanarayana said on Tuesday that the state government has full rights on the Maanyam lands in the possession of priests.
Priests have the right over the income from those lands, not ownership or other rights, he stressed.
The minister said that for the preservation of Hindu dharma, the government is setting up funds for Dhoopa, Deepa and Naivedyam in one temple in every village. The Dharmika Praishad's tenure ended in 2017, during the time of the Telugu Desam government, but it did not appoint a new Dharmika Parishad for two years till 2019. It was after this that the YSRC government came to power, he said.
Addressing a press meet, the minister said that the state government has issued GO-MS-571 on August 13, appointing a new Andhra Pradesh Dharmika Parishad with 21 members. This will have the endowments minister as chairman, endowments commissioner as member secretary, revenue department principal secretary and 18 others as members.
Satyanarayana said the state government has the authority to form trust boards for temples with an income of less than Rs 25 lakh and above Rs 1 crore. The Dharmika Parishad will form trust boards for temples with assets in this range.
The Dharmika Parishad has the power to prevent corruption and irregularities in the temples and take action against the heads of Mutts who commit corruption and irregularities. If they do so, they would be removed from the posts and new appointments made.
Similarly, he said, the Dharmika Parishad also has the power to extend the lease of lands and properties of the Endowments Departments beyond 11 years.
The state government has issued orders GO-MS- 572 giving opportunity to three more members in the Common Good Fund (CGF).
Around 4,708 cases were pending in courts pertaining to the Endowment department for a long time. Only 722 cases have been resolved.
The minister said the conditions were not conducive to solving the remaining cases. The high court would be asked to allocate eight court Amins to resolve all these issues as soon as possible.
