Illegal houses demolished in Kukatapally

Illegal houses demolished in Kukatapally

HYDERABAD: Revenue authorities demolished several illegally constructed houses on government land at Shamshiguda near Kukatpally early on Monday morning. Tension prevailed for sometime as the authorities demolished as many as 182 illegally constructed houses at Yellamma Banda and Dattatreya Nagar. The families were fast asleep when the authorities arrived to demolish the houses this morning. Though locals tried to resist the demolitions, police prevented them. The Balanagar mandal revenue authorities found that a six-acre land located at Sy No. 57 had been occupied by encroachers two months ago. "As all the officials were busy with election related works, the squatters could not be removed earlier. Taking advantage of the situation, the occupants constructed houses," special deputy collector (land protection officer) V Venkateswara Rao told TOI. The revenue authorities arrived at Yellamma Banda and Dattetreya Nagar at Shamshiguda along with 250 policemen, six JCB machines (earth movers) and 70 workers at 5 am and demolished a total of 182 houses, including 120 houses at Yellamma Banda and 62 houses at Dattatreya Nagar. Another 20 houses, the construction of which had been done till the basement level were also demolished. "The officials came at 5 am and woke up all the families. They did not even give time for us to take away our belongings," said S Gauramma, a dhobhi who hails from Mahbubnagar. Another mason, B Venkateswarlu who came from Kandukur of Prakasam district had taken a house for rent two months ago. "I was paying a rent of Rs 1,500 per month. I did not know that the house was constructed illegally on government land. The house owner does not not reside here," he said. A housewife C Eswaramma said she had purchased a plot of 80 sq feet at Yellamma Banda from one Anasuyamma two months ago. "I spent over Rs 4 lakh to construct the house. I took a loan from moneylender with huge interest. Now, the revenue officials demolished my house. Anasuyamma has cheated me by selling government land," Eswaramma said. Surprisingly, the families have been getting electricity bills for the past two months and have also been getting daily water supply. The land protection officer, V Venkateswar Rao, Chevella revenue sub-divisional officer Ratna Kumar, Serlingampally tehsildar K Damodar Reddy and Balanagar deputy collector and tehsildar Sudhakar Rao were all present at the site during demolition. "We came to know that four persons, including Anasuyamma, Vema Reddy, Material Anjeneyulu and Jagadeesh who belong to local area are behind the land grabbing. A complaint will be lodged at Kukatpally police station against them to register criminal cases," land protection officer Venkateswara Rao said. Kukatpally inspector V Surender Reddy said when the demolition was taking place, five persons were taken into preventive custody and released later. He said a complaint was yet to be lodged by the revenue authorities against the land grabbers.