Hyderabad: Officials-encroacher nexus comes to light

Hyderabad: The Jubilee Hills Sattva Welfare Society’s prime parcel of land measuring 889 sq. yd has been encroached. 

The plot is worth at least Rs 9 crore in the market and the encroacher has built a shed on the land.

After a furore erupted, the GHMC, which had regularised the plot, has now issued a seizure notice to save its skin.

The irregularity first came to light when the society members produced a blueprint of the layout, clearly showing the park land.

This revealed nexus of the encroacher, who is connected to powers-that-be in the state, and the GHMC and town planning wings.

The encroacher is reported to be a retired deputy commissioner. He is alleged to have fabricated the documents by showing the open space near the original park as green space. 

The present market rate at Jubilee Hills is Rs 1 lakh per sq. yd.

Following a complaint by the society members to the chief city planner, an inquiry was ordered and officials found that the documents submitted to regularise the plot were fabricated.

An inquiry into the sale deed and the registration documents further proved the irregularity.

The issue has been forwarded to the GHMC standing council. The case is yet to come up for hearing in the court. 

The saga of park land encroachments 
A cluster cases of where the GHMC regularised park lands as plots have come up before the court. In Eashwaripuri Colony, spread over 52 acres, of the five parks, two 700 sq. yd pieces were sold as plots. At Ashok Enclave, 800 sq. yds of green space were converted into plots and were sold. Again, at Netajinagar Cooperative Welfare Society, 1,200 sq yds of land was regularised and sold as plots. 

As per the official layout of Eashwaripuri Colony, five parks were earmarked. 

Presently, only one park is active with a municipal compound wall. Another park has been encroached and has been turned into a religious shrine. 

The remaining three parks have been converted into plots and residential buildings have occupied it with a green signal from the municipality. 

The municipality had constructed a basement around the land and developed it as children’s park and equipments were also installed. 

However, despite the earmarking, the municipality gave the permission to sell it.

The land, measuring 3 acres in the survey number 199/10, was handed over to the Kapra Municipality in 1999 for dumping garbages. The land was fenced and used for dumping garbages for some time.  The municipality also demolished unauthorised structures in area. However, land grabbers managed to encroach it and later sold it. Currently, residential buildings occupy the place with approval from the municipality.

There are a few HUDA-approved layouts in the Kapra Municipality in Ashok Enclave (Survey No - 504) , Gopal Reddy Nagar (S. No 60, 650, 651/P ) and Eashwaripuri (S. No - 591, 595, 596). 

In all these places, park land has been encroached and sold as plots with the nod from the municipal corporation.