Hyderabad: The government has not extended the tenure of the S.K. Sinha task force, after it began identifying encroachment of government land in the IT corridor. The task force has identified 12,939 acres of government land occupied by private persons and land grabbers. Chief Minister K. Chand-rasekhar Rao appointed the task force in 2014 to identify encroached government land. Its tenure ended on December 11, 2016.
The committee has so far submitted nine reports to the government regarding 2,000 acres occupied by private persons, including politicians. Based on the reports, the government began cracking the whip on offenders. The committee had stated that one Narayan Rao occupied 1,000 acres of surplus and assigned land in Tellapur, near Serilingam-pally, Kollur, Ammenpur and Patancheru. For this, the task force recommended criminal action against the then sarpanch Lingala Kistaiah and others. The task force found that in Tellapur 249.38 acres of government land had been encroached upon in 2006.
Based on the recommendations made by the committee, the government took criminal action against the then chairman of the Bhoodan Board G. Rajendra Reddy for encroaching on 144.26 acres of Bhoodan land in Saiabad Kancha and Ibrahimpatnam. After submitting eight reports relating in Medak (now Sangareddy), Ranga Reddy, Medchal and Yadadri districts, the task force concentrated on encroachments of government land in the IT corridor and submitted its first report on survey number 66/2 in Raidurgam.
The task force found that four out of 20 acres of prime land, valued at '14 crore per acre, had been encroached upon. In neighbouring Survey No. 83, the government has installed boards demarcating its land but Araku, AP, MP Kothapalli Geetha has claims that the land belongs to her. Another parcel of land in the same lot, consisting of 2.2 acres, is claimed by one E. Thirupatamma. The then revenue officials allocated the land to her without verifying papers.
While investigating encroachments in Survey No. 83, task force committee chairman S.K. Sinha obtained old records and found irregularities. He issued summons to the then mandal revenue officers/ tahsildars and land grabbers, which included politicians. When the tenure of the committee ended on Decem-ber 11, 2016, this investigation came to a halt. The government has not extended its term. An official from the task force said that many politicians were behind encroachments in Serilingampally.
"Once the government extends our term, we will submit reports on these issues. Mr Sinha has been writing letters since September 2016 and the file is with the Chief Minister. Mr Sinha is not getting an appointment to meet Mr Rao for two months,” he said.
