A dispute between the Tahsildar and SC beneficiaries of Tolukatta gram panchayat in Moinabad mandal over one acre of land on survey no 138 has led to demolition of basements of five dwellings and a house on Saturday.
The beneficiaries and the ex-sarpanch of panchayat Boligidda Satyanarayana said that they were given house pattas for the land on survey numbers 138, 139, 140 and 141 between 1999 and 2001 and again in 2007 by the then TDP and Congress governments while the Moinabad Tahsildar dismissed the contention and said the land was never allotted to the beneficiaries.
At least half a dozen SC beneficiaries who tried to stop the demolition were lathi-charged for violating the lockdown norms, said village former sarpanch Satyanarayana who distributed rations and cash given by some donors to those who sat in despair at their demolished units on Tuesday.
Kathula Sattamma, Boda Suresh, Sannasi Ilaiah, Kummari Jangaiah and others were given pattas and plot numbers in 2007 during the tenure of Y.S.Rajasekhar Reddy. Before them, several poor of their village too were given house sites between 1999 and 2001 by the then Telugu Desam government. In all, 378 pattas in the layouts earmarked for poor on survey numbers 38, 139, 140 and 141 etc., were given, according to Satyanarayana.
At a time when these poor families including a widow were facing hardships with no earnings, the demolition of their dwellings which they started with great difficulty was inhuman, said former Chevella MP and Congress leader Konda Vishweshwar Reddy who is familiar with the issue and intervened on behalf of poor when he was a TRS MP. The incident of demolitions came to light when he took to twitter and posted the video highlighting the plight of the poor. Apparently the dwellings were demolished because they were in violation of GO 111, he pointed out. He told The Hindu the MRO, who did not respond to his telephone calls when the poor highlighted their plight, clarified later on Tuesday that was not an issue related to GO 111 but action was taken because they were illegal encroachments.
"The beneficiaries are in possession of the documents given by government for several years now. How can they be harassed when they are already reeling under hardship due to lockdown," Mr.Reddy said.
Moinabad Tahsildar K Anitha told The Hindu that the house site pattas were not given for the land in survey No 138 and it was a clear case of encroachment.“ I told them many times not to start construction on the government land”. “When we have been busy with measures to check spread of COVID-19, some villagers started construction work and put stones to demarcate plots illegally. After informing the authorities, including District Collector, we removed the encroachments — foundation work of two houses and partly broke a wall of an illegally constructed house. No one is residing in the house, which was used to store construction materials”, she said.
In the lockdown time, people should not come out. But these people not only encroached on government land but also started construction work, she alleged.