BJP Lashes Out At TRS Over Kali Temple Encroachment

Tension gripped the Old City today as protests to block the construction of a boundary wall around a Kali temple in Uppuguda turned violent.

The local residents had gathered at the temple site demanding that the construction of the fence around the temple be suspended as the seven acres on which the temple stood were under the control of the state's endowments department since 1951.

The person who had initiated the construction, however, claimed that the temple trust had sold the land to him.

The police reached the spot to disperse the protestors, and even took a few protesters into preventive custody.

Following the clash between the protestors and the police, state BJP president Bandi Sanjay Kumar and Goshamahal MLA Raja Singh addressed a press conference regarding the matter.

Speaking on the occasion, the BJP chief accused Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao of having failed to protect the temple lands of the state, and demanded that he take immediate steps to do that.

"Temple lands in the Old City are been encroached upon by the land mafia and the MIM. They are being able to do this as both the ruling party and the police are doing nothing to stop them. But the TRS government should know that the BJP will not sit quietly if endowment lands worth crores of rupees continue to get usurped in this fashion," he added.

The BJP leader reiterated his warning, and said that the government that if it failed to take the necessary steps to deal with the encroachments, the saffron party would launch massive demonstrations against it.

He then lashed out at the AIMIM and the police, claiming that while the AIMIM's leaders had created fake documents to encroach upon the temple lands, the police had also not done anything to stop the party.

Goshamahal MLA Raja Singh also attacked the state government for allowing the encroachment of temple lands, and said that if the government was not ready to protect the lands, the BJP would readily do so.

He too urged the CM to address the issue immediately.

He also demanded that the DCP in charge of the area be suspended as he had used "coercive methods" to disperse the protestors.

"First, the police did nothing to stop the encroachment of the Kali temple's property. They simply allowed an individual to begin construction work on the site because he claimed that the temple trust had sold the land to him. On top of that, when the locals gathered to protest this construction, the police attacked the common people and the party cadre unnecessarily. We demand that the DCP be suspended immediately for colluding with the encroacher," Singh added.