Revenue department and municipality officials, in the presence of policemen, demolished buildings and structures in Ameenpur, built on the edge of the lake citing it as government property on Tuesday during the brief let up in the rain.
“The land belonged to me. In 2021, I asked for a survey to be carried out so that the ownership details could be clear. But instead of doing a survey in the past three years, the government officials carried out demolitions even as I was protesting,” said Tummala Panduranga Reddy, chairman of Ameenpur Municipality.
Mr. Reddy recently switched from Bharat Rashtra Samithi to Congress, but that did not appear to help matters for him.
“This is routine work. We razed buildings in survey no 119 and 462 as it was government land and we cleared encroachments in 32 guntas of land. More property owners have been served notices and demolitions will be carried out in due time. This action is under the purview of Hyderabad Disaster Response and Assets Protection Agency (HYDRAA),” said a government official supervising the municipal action. However, HYDRAA officials said they were not responsible for the demolitions.
“The demolitions happened in two properties, one of which was owned by a school whose boundary wall, sheds and three rooms were demolished, and another property belonged to the municipal chairman,” said V. Ravikrishna, an advocate who brought attention of municipal officials to the encroachment.
