Warangal: A poor, elderly couple got back their land after ages, but not before they were reduced to begging to bribe an official.
Manthu Basaviah and Lakshmi of Azamnagar in Bhupalpally mandal of Jayashankar Bhupalpally district were found begging on the streets of Bhupalpally on Friday with a placard on their neck saying the tahsildar had demanded Rs 1 lakh to give them passbooks to their nine-acre plot.
Their appeals to officials had fallen on deaf ears but they saw a ray of hope when the state government launched the purification of land records programme.
However, tahsildar Satyanarayana allegedly demanded Rs 1 lakh from them to hand over the passbooks of the land.
It was only after collector V. Venkateshwarlu came to know about the incident that he directed district revenue officer Venkata Chary to immediately register the land in their name and hand them the passbooks.
