Land worth Rs 20,000 crore in legal wrangle in Hyderabad's Rangareddy district

HYDERABAD: The Rangareddy district administration has been fighting a legal battle to reclaim huge chunks of government land worth about Rs 20,000 crore in surrounding areas of the city. The trouble arose due to poor maintenance of land records and alleged involvement of some revenue officials.

According to district revenue officials, over 17,000 acres of government land in Rangareddy district is either caught in litigation or encroached upon by land grabbers. The state government has been fighting cases related to evacuee, enemy properties and jagir land for decades in high court and the Supreme Court.

On Friday, the high court gave judgement on evacuee land worth Rs 8,000 crore at Puppalguda in Ranga Reddy district in favour of the state government.

"We have about 2,000 to 3,000 acres land parcels in surrounding mandals of Greater Hyderabad under litigation. This includes evacuee property, enemy property, Paigah land and assigned land. The district administration has been making all efforts to take over the government land," Ranga Reddy joint collector Rajit Kumar Saini told TOI on Saturday.

For instance, about 259 acres in Miyapur, another 148 acres in Puppalguda and about 300 acres in Shamshabad are caught in legal problems. The Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) is also fighting a legal battle to resume land, which was allocated by the revenue department. Officials said orders were already given to tehsildars to ensure that there are no fresh encroachments. "Our task is to maintain status quo on the disputed land till the case is disposed of by court as there are chance of constructing buildings by the other party," the joint collector said.

To arrest further encroachments, it is decided to protect 259 land parcels worth about Rs 5,000 crore in the district by taking up fencing.

"In the first phase, the revenue department has identified about 1,000 acres in Uppal, Malkajgiri and Serinligampally mandals where the assignees either sold the land to private parties or changed the nature of land by converting it from agriculture to residential or commercial purpose. Some assignees have even raised function halls," a special grade deputy collector said.