HYDERABAD: At least 60 industrialists, who send material to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for the manufacture of satellites from their units in Balanagar, were left in the lurch after the Medchal district industries department officials served memos requiring them to hand over to the government, the leased land on which their units were located in Phase-I of the Balanagar industrial area.
Sources said that the government had purchased 47 acres of land from farmers in 1964 and entered into a 51-year lease agreement with 61 allottees to develop the area as an industrial hub. The allottees, who have a wealth of expertise in each of their fields, set up the infrastructure required to develop the area as an industrial centre and started industries.
"In 1974, the government again entered into a sale-cum-lease agreement with the allottees, around 2,000 square metres to each allottee, to continue and use the property for industrial purposes," said Surapaneni Ravi, owner of Instrumental Technologies, which is located in Balanagar's Phase-I industrial area.
For the past 60 years, allottees have continued to operate industries and paying the state government property taxes, power bills, GST, VAT, and sales tax as relevant. They established the Co-operative Industries Estate Ltd, in which administration staff and the general manager of industries have authority over industrial operations.
"As a result of natural disasters, the industries suffered financially, and no bank came forward to offer loans because the properties were under lease. We obtained loans by pledging our private properties to banks. Some industries have run into financial difficulties and have turned to tenants to run their business," said K. Bharath Veer, vice-chairman of the Co-operative Industrial Estate Ltd.
Veer said that the Medak district industries department officials claimed to have carried out a survey and found that some of the original allottees had run their own businesses and others had sub-leased the land to tenants. Based on the survey results, authorities from the industries department served memos asking the original allottees to hand over the land to the government.
Following this, the association petitioned the High Court for a status quo order. “For over six decades, we paid property taxes, power bills, GST, VAT, and sales taxes. The government must consider allotting these properties to the original allottees in accordance with the law," Veer contended.
The association's counsel, G. Srinivas, urged the court to direct the Telangana government to either prolong the lease agreement to the original allottees for a further 33 years or sell the land to the original allottees for '10,000 per square metre.
