Vijayawada, September 24: Largescale discrepancies in the management of assets of many temples in the State, including a few in Krishna district, have come to light, according to informed sources in the Endowments department.
As per the records of the Endowments department, there are 734 temples which come under its jurisdiction.
They have 36,000 acres of land which have been donated by kings and the general public over a long period of time. Of late, the Endowments department, has started computerisation of all the records of land assets of the Endowments department in the State. The sources said that not more than 20 per cent of the lands originally belonging to the respective temples today are are in the hands of the department.
They said the recent Agiripalli temple issue brought to the fore the fact that not more than 100 acres of the total of around 500 acres that were originally there in the temple records today are recorded as temple lands. While some have been encroached upon, a few others are in legal litigations.
Citing yet another example, almost 900 acres of land of the Gollapalli Raghunatha Swamy temple are also known to have been encroached upon.
The Tirupatamma Talli temple in Penuganchiprolu village also faces a similar situation.
–Agencies–