Inquiry exonerates MSR in temple land dealings

BY V L SRINIVASAN

Published on Dec 29, 2006

Hyderabad: In a big relief to the State Government, the Justice A Venkatarami Reddy Commission of Inquiry (CoI), which inquired into the specific cases of lease, sale or alienation of temple lands, has exonerated former minister M Satyanarayana Rao.

The CoI, however, is understood to have found fault with retired commissioner of endowments (CED) I Venkateswarlu, who held the post from January 19, 2005, till he retired on May 31, 2005, for various omissions and commissions during his tenure and recommended measures to check such malpractices in the sale or alienation of the temple lands.

The report was submitted to the State Government early this month. Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy discussed it with Endowments Minister JC Diwakar Reddy and other senior officials a couple of days before the start of Winter Session of the Assembly.

‘‘But for the Action Taken Report (ATR), which is still being finalised, the report would have been placed in tomorrow’s State Cabinet meeting for its ratification,’’ highly-placed sources told ‘Express’. The report will now be placed in the next Cabinet meeting to be held around Sankranti.

The CoI was appointed by the State Government following allegations that the officials were directed to enter into compromises in various cases of temple lands under Section 80, 82, and 89 (2) of the Endowments Act to benefit a section of leaders belonging to the ruling Congress.

Apparently hurt by the charges, Satyanarayana Rao, who was then holding Endowments portfolio, resigned but Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy, who ordered an ACB probe besides a judicial probe, changed his portfolio to Sports and Culture.

According to sources, as many as 71 cases for compromise were ordered between 1995 and 2005. Of them, 61 orders were reportedly processed by Venkateswarlu during his tenure which lasted less than five months.

The remaining five orders were passed during the tenure of his predecessors since 2002.

‘‘In almost all the cases, the orders were understood to have been passed during the last two months of Venkateswarlu’s tenure. While he passed 12 orders in April, another 36 cases were said to have been cleared in May, involving an extent of around 375 acres,’’ sources said.

The CoI reportedly said that the very fact that Venkateswarlu processed 61 files within a short period showed that he was in a great hurry and did not bestow the necessary care and consideration in dealing with such cases of compromise.

The Devarayamjal lands in the neighbouring Rangareddy district, whose market value was around Rs 11 crore, fetched only Rs 48.36 lakh due to the compromise proceedings passed by him, the CoI said in its report.