BJP MLA backs' land grabber

Hyderabad: Owners of land in Hastinapuri in Yapral alleged on Wednesday that Uppal BJP legislator N.V.S.S. Prabhakar, while speaking in the Assembly on Monday, had supported a person accused in a land grab case.

“The MLA secured 400 votes from Hastinapuri and has not stood by his voters. Mr Prabhakar has taken the side of a land grabber in the Assembly by showing GHMC officers in a bad light,” said a plot owner.

On the 31 acres in Hastinapuri, there are 300 plots, of which 270 have been built on. The alleged land grabber is said to have occupied a plot and sold it to different parties, and is now trying to occupy land in Surveys No. 5,6,7,8,9,10 and 11. He is allegedly insisting that building permission should not be granted on plots surrounding these survey numbers.

The MLA said in the Assembly: “In a case in Kapra municipality, the town planning officers are accepting bribes and approving building permissions when there is a Supreme Court order against it.” 

Mr Jai Prakash, a members of the Hastinapuri Cooperative Housing Society, said, “There is no Supreme Court order with regard to Hastinapuri. The MLA has supported him by calling officers corrupt for granting building permission to legal plot owners like the members of the society. The land grabber wants to stall permissions and knock off the vacant land.”

The Hastinapuri Cooperative Housing Society has registered two FIRs against the person with the Kushaiguda police.

Society secretary G. Manohar said the colony is more than 30 years old and the residents were middle-class employees. 

“The MLA did not even bother to find the facts from the society before making a statement in the Assembly. Government agencies such as GHMC and Rachakonda police have investigated the land grabbing issue by appointing various committees and taking legal opinion, which has confirmed the title of the members of the society,” he said.

The members alleged that the MLA was not allowing GHMC officials to grant new building permission and was forcing officers to cancel permissions granted earlier. 

Asked about this, Mr Prabhakar said, “I was addressing the issue of corruption in the town planning section of GHMC when I took the example of Hastinapuri. I have nothing to do with the land grabber, neither am I supporting him. I am open for discussion with the residents.”