Buddhist monks and members of the District Maha Bodhi Society held a demonstration in front of the Collectorate here on Wednesday demanding the government to cancel the allotment of 15 acres to the Film Nagar Cultural Club on the site of a Buddhist monument at Thotlakonda.
Monk Dhammananda Bhante, society office-bearers Kornana Umapathi, Gunupudi Babulu, Bora Venugopal Gautam, Eerla Venkata Rao and others staged a dharna holding placards with the demand of cancellation of land given to the film club written on them.
They also raised slogans criticising the allotment.
Later they met the Collector and handed over a memorandum seeking cancellation of land to the film club and they also explained that the Boudhharama and Mahastupam at Thotlakonda are venerated places for Buddhists and is visited by Indian and foreign Buddhists round the year. But the government disrespected the place by allotting land to the film people’s club.
The allotment also violated the country’s archaeology Act which does not allow any kind of construction in the area protected under the Act, they lamented.
The society members recalled that in the past a GO issued to lay a 60 feet wide road to Thotlakonda was cancelled following an agitation.
Published - October 27, 2016 12:00 am IST
