The Panchagramalu Bhoomula Committee, led by secretary T.V. Krishnamraju, announced a demonstration at the Gandhi Statue in Visakhapatnam on September 27, aiming to spotlight a decades‑long freeze on property transactions, bank loans and structural repairs that has left thousands of families in legal limbo.
Krishnamraju told The Hindu that the five villages – Adavivaram, Vepagunta, Cheemalapalli, Venkatapuram and Purushothapuram – together account for 20 of the 120 wards in the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation and house over two lakh registered voters, a bloc he believes will "definitely decide the fate of the contestants" in the upcoming civic polls.
Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has recently directed the Visakhapatnam Collector to resolve the dispute, but officials say an immediate settlement is unlikely because the case is sub judice. A Public Interest Litigation filed by an individual seeking protection for the endowment lands has kept the matter within the courts.
The controversy dates back to the mid‑1990s when state authorities issued Ryotwari pattas to the Sri Varaha Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple, covering roughly 1,785 acres across the five villages. The move stripped multigenerational families – whose occupancy records trace back to the 1903 Gilman Survey and who have paid municipal taxes for decades – of legal ownership, effectively branding them as encroachers on their own land.
Political candidates across party lines are now forced to address the issue, as the dense voter concentration makes it difficult to campaign without offering concrete plans for land regularisation. Opposition groups have seized on the dispute to press the ruling party for swift action, while local leaders such as Gopala Krishnudu warn that ordinary homeowners continue to suffer amid the protracted legal battle.