Encroached govt. lands worth Rs 78.5 cr retrieved

Kadapa: In a major drive, the district revenue officials on Sunday retrieved prime government lands worth Rs 78.52 crores that were encroached over a period of time in Kadapa district. The officials took of the drive against encroachment on the orders of District Collector Kona Sashidhar. Tahsildar Srinivasulu arranged survey teams as per the Collector's directions and recovered the encroached lands and displayed notice boards announcing them to be government lands. The encroached lands were identified in places like Chinna Chowk, Putlampalle, Chemmumia Peta, Nagarajupalle, Kadapa town, Ukkayapalle, Prakash Nagar and Gudur. Common man's desperation to own a house and the resultant boom in real estate are cited as the reasons for illegal activity of encroaching lands, especially prime government lands. With competition increasing, rival encroachers resorted to attacks and counter attacks, sources said. Revenue officials identified encroached lands in the following areas: 20 cents in SNo: 33/1, 33/2 and 18 cents in SNo: 22 in Putlampalli revenue field; one acre in SNo: 64 in Chemmumiya Peta; 6 cents in SNo: 636 of Chinna Chowk; 21 cents in SNo: 927 in Chinna Chowk; 25 cents in SNo: 907 in Prakash Nagar of Chinna Chowk; agricultural land of SNo: 108/1 in Nagarajupalle; 8 cents in SNo: 108 cents in Nagarajupalle revenue field; 3 cents in SNo: 30 in Kadapa town; 6.18 acres in SNo: 729/1 of Ukkayapalle; and 13.12 cents in SNo: 66/7 in Gudur revenue field were encroached upon. Four and half cents of land in survey numbers (SNo): 895/5, 907/1 in Chinna Chowk revenue field was encroached the rate of which according to revenue officials is Rs 65.34 lakhs. The value of 10 cents in SNo: 898/5 and 907/1 is Rs 1.45 crores and 3.63 cents of SNo: 247/2 is more than Rs 35 lakhs in Chinna Chowk. They calculated the value of the confiscated government lands to be about Rs 78.52 crores. The price of these lands in the present market would be double, sources said.