Osmania University land lost to leases, squatters
There are a few religious structures too on the campus that are encroachments
Hyderabad: The Osmania University originally had 1,722 acres of land, said a senior official. Overall, 250 acres of OU land have been leased out to various bodies. Of them, 120 acres have been leased out to 17 educational institutions since 1966 at throwaway price of Rs 1 per acre.
Some of the OU land beneficiaries include the RTC hospital, a petrol pump, NGRI, IICT, CCMB, IPE, HPS-Ramanthapur, Andhra Mahila Sabha, and the National Institute of Nutrition. An entire university — the English and Foreign Languages University — has been carved out of OU lands using more than 30 acres.
According to a senior state government official, the well-known Aradhana theatre in Tarnaka was also built on OU land. Apart from this, many years ago, more than 30 acres of land was given away in charity to labourers who reside in the area, which is now called Manikeshwarinagar.
While the university does not let out details of encroachments, one can get an idea that for land regularisation, there were nearly 250 applications from areas considered OU lands.
Of them, 48 were from Above Poverty Line families. According to a senior government official, the area behind the Ramanthapur lake is also part of OU lands. On the campus, there are said to be 11 settlements.
There is also a toddy compound adjoining the university which is said to be an encroachment. There are a few religious structures too on the campus that are encroachments.
Recently, six acres of Osmania University lands were sold to the state government for about Rs 40 crore near Begumpet.