Revenue officials facilitate land sharks grab 100 acres

Hyderabad: Corrupt officials of the Revenue department and some officials at the Ranga Reddy District Collector’s office not only facilitated former chairman of Bhoodan Board G Rajender Reddy grab 100 acres of Bhoodan lands but also sat on the files related to protection of these lands.

The report of S K Sinha, chairman of the Task Force on Land, clearly states that Rajender Reddy in collusion with C V Chari, who was the chairman of Bhoodan Board between 1974 and 2012, created documents and made fraudulent transactions to grab the lands that cannot be alienated in any manner.

When the Task Force sought to know from the Mandal Revenue Officer, Ibrahimpatnam on the action taken at their end, the MRO sent a reply that his office did not receive the cancellation order till January 1, 2015 and that the VDS had approached the High Court and secured a status-quo order.

The MRO informed the Task Force that the Bhoodan Board did not take any action after issuing the cancellation proceedings. This despite the fact that the Revenue authorities concerned were asked to take necessary action to incorporate the changes in the revenue records related to 100 acres of land in survey No 58 of Ibrahimpatnam.

The Task Force went deeper into the matter and discovered that the officials of D-Section at the Ranga Reddy District Collector’s office played spoilsport while preparing the note file following the proceedings of the Bhoodan Board cancelling the allotment of 100 acres to VDS.

The officials simply omitted to mention the first point, “To take immediate action for cancellation of mutation in favour of VDS or any other third parties and restore the entries in the revenue records in favour of Telangana Bhoodan Board” and only mentioned the second and third - to send a report of lapses on the part of Tahsildar/Revenue officials who had mutated the land in favour of VDS or any third parties and to take necessary action for protection of the land, said the Sinha report.

Thus, they suppressed the key point and circulated the file in a routine manner. The District Collector’s office did not act until Sinha addressed a letter on the matter. Thus, such an important file has been delayed for over a month enabling the land grabbers move the court and secure an order in their favour.

Further, Sinha recommended that officials of the Ranga Reddy District Collector’s office who sat on the file must be chargesheeted. He also stated that the role of DRO and MRO, Ibrahimpatnam cannot be ruled out and hence they should be made accountable for their omissions and commissions.

Sinha also recommended that all the transactions made on the Bhoodan lands were null and void and hence steps should be initiated to cancel the transactions under the Registration Act and the court case filed by the VDS be contested aggressively besides launching criminal proceedings and an in-depth investigation into the entire issue by the Crime Investigation Department.

However, for the reasons best known to the authorities and the government, no such action has been taken so far even as the land-grabbers continue to have a field day.

By V Ramu Sarma & Naresh Sankepally​