Mancherial civic officials draw flak for failing to protect land worth Rs 14 Cr

When asked, Municipal Commissioner A Maruthi Prasad said measures were being taken to protect the land from being encroached.

Mancherial: Officials of the Mancherial municipality are drawing flak for failing to retrieve a valuable piece of land, belonging to the civic body on the outskirts of Mulkalla village in Hajipur mandal, which is allegedly being encroached by some real estate developers recently.

An L-shaped plot measuring over 3 acres was acquired from farmers of Mulkalla in order to lay a road from the Nizamabad-Jagdalpur national highway to a pump house, meant for extracting water from Godavari river for providing drinking water to Mancherial town, by paying compensation some 50 years ago. Similarly, another water purification plant was established on the banks of Godavari river near Mulkalla to meet growing needs of drinking water in 2006 spending Rs.29.30 crore. Accordingly, another road, 500 metres long and 40 m wide, was laid from the plant to the Nizamabad-Jagdalpur national highway by acquiring land from farmers.

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The first road has been lying unused for quite a long time. As the land is situated nearly 700m from the main road, the prices of land have skyrocketed in the area. While a few farmers around the land sold their assets to real estate developers, some of the farmers transferred the property to their heirs.

Certain real estate developers eyed the first road and were allegedly trying to occupy it. A cement brick wall was reportedly built across the road to prevent movement of vehicles a few days ago. However, officials of the municipality, who razed illegal structures in the town market recently, have not demolished the wall till now. It was learnt that the land was not transferred to the municipality even after paying compensation, enabling the real estate agents to grab it by paying nominal prices to farmers. Land on the outskirts of Mulkalla village is now priced Rs.10,000 per square feet, with the value of the said property assessed to be around Rs.14 crore.

When asked, Municipal Commissioner A Maruthi Prasad said measures were being taken to protect the land from being encroached. Efforts were on to trace the documents of the said plot. Action would be taken against those who occupy it if found encroached, he stated.