Facing flak from opposition, T'gana CM cancels allotment of land of Sharada Peetham to water board

Hyderabad, Feb 28 (PTI) Facing flak from the BJP and BRS over the allotment of land of Sharada Peetham here to the Hyderabad water board, Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Saturday asked officials to cancel the allotment and continue ownership of the land with the religious organisation.

Soon after representatives of the Peetham brought to his notice the issue, the chief minister held a meeting with senior officials and took stock of the construction taken by the organisation in the land at Kokapet here.

He expressed anger at officials for not informing him about the status of the construction by the Peetham when the land was allotted to water board, an official release said.

Reddy, who told officials to continue Peetham's ownership of the land, directed the representatives of the religious organisation to explain the constructions carried out by them and other relevant matters to state Industries Minister D Sridhar Babu.

Earlier in the day, the BJP and BRS hit out at the government for allotting Peetham's land to the water board as a temple and other structures have been built in the land.

The land was allotted to the Peetham during the previous BRS government.

State BJP president N Ramchander Rao threatened to launch an agitation against the state government's move to transfer ownership of land to the water board and to "demolish" the temple.

Senior BRS MLA T Harish Rao, who visited the land on Saturday morning, alleged that the Congress government was trying to demolish temples after "demolishing the homes of poor in Hyderabad and Khamam". PTI SJR SJR KH