Temple scamsters' land deals cancelled

HYDERABAD: Chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy on Friday took a serious view of the land scam in the endowments department and ordered all decisions pertaining to the sale of temple lands taken by commissioner I Venkateswarulu cancelled.
Official sources said the government has decided to go ahead with the ACB probe against the IAS officer. The chief minister is learnt to have asked his staff to convene a meeting with officials of the revenue and endowments departments to discuss the issue.
With reports indicating the involvement of endowments minister M Satyanarayana Rao and the then principal secretary (revenue) J P Murthy in the affair, the chief minister received a BJP delegation at Secretariat and pledged, "The government will not allow even a square feet of its land, particularly that belonging to temples, to be lost."
As the delegation expressed its concern over the misuse of Section 89 of the Endowments and Religious and Charitable Establishments Act and its removal through an ordinance, the chief minister assured them that the government would not allow it any more.
The BJP delegation, which was led by Bandaru Dattatreya, sought a CBI probe into the sale and other transactions done by Venkateshwarlu and the suspension of J P Murthy.
The delegation demanded that attempts being made to sell other temple lands in various districts must be stopped forthwith, and special courts constituted to evict squatters from temple lands.
Dattatreya said his party was opposed to making lower-level officials scapegoats in the entire episode.