The Telangana High Court has issued notices to the State government and other authorities concerned to file counter affidavit in four weeks in a PIL alleging encroachment of valuable lands belonging to Sri Venkateswara Swamy temple in Rangareddy district.The lands concerned measures 33.18 acres and is situated at Mamidipally village of Balapur mandal.

A division bench of the Court comprising Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice B Vijaysen Reddy passed this order recently. The PIL was filed by Telangana Vanarasena Society, represented by its president N Rami Reddy, seeking direction to take immediate action against some private individuals for allegedly occupying lands belonging to the nearly 800-year-old temple.

The petitioner’s counsel PSP Suresh Kumar said the officials concerned have failed to safeguard the temple’s lands and permitted some individuals to grab the land and get their names entered into revenue records, causing losses to the temple’s revenue. After hearing the case, the bench issued notices to the respondents — Principal Secretary to endowments, Commissioner of endowments, Rangareddy District Collector, revenue divisional officer and the tahsildar concerned for filing counter affidavit on the issue, and posted the matter to January 21 for further hearing.