Land-grabbing: Kill us, owners tell TS govt

HYDERABAD: Kanakama was “robbed” of her land by the land mafia, with authorities refusing to help her recover her property. “Even the police were mute spectators,” she told Deccan Chronicle, bursting into tears. She was not alone in her plight. Kanakama was part of a group of people protesting against the land mafia, as part of the press meet arranged by the residents at the Press Club over the alleged encroachment of plots in Vigneshwara Colony in Jonnabanda of Medchal-Malkajgiri.

While 142 plots were sold across 12 acres and 21 guntas in Survey Nos. 22 and 23, 70 plot owners from near RTC Colony in Moula Ali are crying foul over land-grabbing.

In their interactions with the media, plot owners demanded that the government take action or administer poison to kill them, as they were unable to deal with the issue.

Elderly people who went to visit the plot were forcefully evicted by the land mafia, who also have the police in tow, they said.

Sri Ram, a plot owner, said: “The police took us away from home and warned us not to visit the land.”

Amrathvathi, another protester, said, “When we went to the site, there was a mob of ladies who beat us in front of the police, who were spectators.”

Pampara Sukanya, another owner, said: “We brought the land with dreams to build our house. I saved hard-earned money by cleaning fish at a market. And these people have encroached on our land, despite us having all the right documents. It was not a government-distributed land, all these people here who are asking for justice, have bought the land not through any free scheme.”

Plot owners also protested against MLA Mynampally Hanumanth Rao, raising the slogan of “Mynampally hatao, Medchal-Malkajgiri bachao (Dismiss Mynampally, save Medchal-Malkajgiri)”.

They accused the MLA and his associates of forging documents in connivance with authorities, replotting the entire site, with apartments and other establishments set to come up on 30 per cent of the land.

Uma, a protester, said: “When we asked for justice, we were dragged to the police station and detained at the station for a whole day.”

Sai Prasad, BJYM (BJP’s youth wing) national treasurer, said: “Mynampally Hanumanth Rao and his associates encroached 42 land parcels in the surroundings, of which 25 are private and 17 which belong to the government, earmarked for parks, lakes and SC-assigned lands.”