Women Occupy Allotted Land Amid Suspicions of Minister's Involvement in Shamirpet

HYDERABAD: Around 200 persons including women, armed with sticks, set up huts on a land parcel which the government had allotted for the poor, in Upparpally of Shamirpet on Sunday, according to former ZPTC member P. Balesh who suspected the role of minister Ch Malla Reddy.

Balesh, who said he was distributing housing pattas for 500 applicants, alleged that those who occupied the land were newcomers. “We suspect that minister Ch Malla Reddy was behind the occupying of land,” Balesh said.

When T. Devender Goud was minister in the undivided Andhra Pradesh government, he had allocated 20 acres to 500 applicants for constructing houses. Later, when M.V. Reddy was the Rangareddy collector, he allocated some land to the Red Cross Society.

More recently, the Shamirpet tahsildar and the Keesara revenue divisional officer conducted a survey and allocated open plots for 300 persons and gave pattas.

"The land is in dispute, the villagers of Upparpally filed a petition before the High Court and it is pending. On Saturday night and Sunday morning, new persons came to the place and occupied it and build huts. When we tried to call the revenue officials and the police, they replied that they would look into the issue," Balesh said.