Politicians exploit GHMC officials for extortion

Hyderabad: GHMC officials of Kukatpally zone in nexus with local leaders have allegedly collected bribes from people belonging to economically-weaker sections, who were constructing new houses in their tiny plots using their hard-earned money.

If the owners fail to pay the bribes, sources said local officials would demolish these new structures, making the residents homeless. In several cases, owners were building new houses after demolishing old structures which were in a dilapidated condition.

Despite the incidents of extortion by the staff in connivance with local leaders coming to his notice, Kukatpally GHMC zonal commissioner Apurv Chauhan allegedly ignored the matter.

A similar incident was reported on Friday at the KPHB Phase III.

When three owners, who co-own a 75-square yard plot of land allocated to weaker sections, were building a new structure as the old one had become unlivable, GHMC officials demolished portions of the structure.

A person named P.R. Naidu, who introduced himself as a politician, camped at the under-construction building, parked his SUV (AP 09 CT 0030) and instructed the GHMC officials to demolish the structure. The instructions were religiously followed by GHMC officials by drilling holes into a portion of slab and walls.

Naidu had allegedly demanded a bribe a few days ago, but the owners had expressed their inability to cough up the money. After the demolition work started, he again contacted the owners and reiterated his demand for `25,000 per floor with a promise that he would stop further demolitions.

“Without any prior information and serving notice, officials drilled the portions of my house. The municipal department is resorting to a systematic extortion in nexus with local politicians. Employees, who barged into the house to demolish it, refused to reveal their identity and even refused to share the phone number of their senior officials,” said Swarna Latha, 70, the one of co-owners of the house.

When contacted by this newspaper, zonal commissioner Apurv Chauhan flatly denied any such illegal activity by his staff.