Hyderabad: The demolition of 75 houses illegally constructed in government land at Christianpally village in Mahabubnagar municipality throughout Wednesday night, into Thursday morning, has created fear among the land encroachers. Yet, this wasn’t the first time such an action was initiated.
There were 90 acres of government land in survey number 523 at Christianpally village. Among these, around 30 acres have been assigned to caste-based organisations by successive governments.
Even since the 1980s, there have been people in occupation of this land, and among them were those holding fake pattadar passbooks with forged signatures, and those who are original patta holders.
Former district collector Ronald Rose segregated fake pattas and original pattas when he served there (between 2018 and 2019). He had assured the genuine pattadars that they would be allotted a 2BHK house if they alienated their land. After he was transferred, occasional encroachments with forged passbooks, obtained through commission brokers have been a common modus operandi.
“People have been building houses illegally in 80, 90 and 100 sq ft areas which has increased in the last few months. Even in the past similar demolition drives have been taken up. This time too, when the revenue officials received many complaints of the encroachments, they swung into action,” Manoj, a resident of Mahabubnagar town told Siasat.com.
The revenue officials led by Mahabubnagar urban MRO Ghansiram demolished the vacant houses in the dark of the night in the presence of police personnel when there was nobody inside the houses. Among the destroyed homes were 25 houses belonging to persons with disabilities.
Irrespective of which party has been in power, the issuance of fake pattas has been a common practice in Mahabubnagar town for decades, said those familiar with the encroachment issue in survey number 523.
MRO Ghansiram couldn’t be reached for comment on the phone.
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