Encroachers evicted, huts demolished

Kadapa: The district officials cracked a whip on the encroachers and demolished hundreds of illegal huts on the premises of Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) here on Wednesday.A Amidst tight police protection, the revenue officials came to the spot and removed encroachments with the help of JCBs from the government assigned lands. There are some acres of government assigned land on the premises of RIMS in the town. With the government officials showing negligence for some years and not taking any steps to protect the lands, some people had encroached the entire land in the last few years. The encroachers have not only erected temporary shelters, but have also constructed some prayer halls. With this, over 2,000 huts came up illegally during the past few years. Moreover, some persons with the support of TDP and MIM parties and other local leaders took hundreds of plots into their possession and also started selling them to people illegally. On Wednesday morning, the Revenue officials demolished hundreds of huts at the site by taking protection from the police department. On the occasion, the police also took 20 people into custody. As a precautionary measure, the police deployed additional security at the demolition site and were also monitoring the situation from the time to time. Speaking to the media, Kadapa RDO Veerabrahmam said the district administration had already informed the encroachers to vacate the site, but in vain. "On the instructions of the District Collector, we have removed all the encroachments from the site and have taken these lands into our possession," he said. He also warned that the officials would take serious legal action against those who again try to encroachment upon its land.

Protest against demolition of huts Kadapa: Protesting against the demolition of huts by revenue officials on the premises of Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), activists of Left parties and TDP took out a huge rally in Kadapa town on Wednesday. The rally began at Erramukkalapalli circle and concluded at the Collectorate after covering all important junctions in the town. A large number of activists of Left parties and TDP took part in the rally and raised slogans against the officials over the demolition of huts. Addressing the gathering at the Collectorate, CPI leader Eeshwaraiah lambasted the district administration for failing to provide house sites to the poor and accused it of demolishing the poor people's huts near the RIMS. TDP leader Govardhan Reddy pointed out that the ruling Congress leaders promised on several occasions that the house sites would be provided to the poor people in the district, but they had not given a single house site to anyone. He demanded the government to sanction the house sites to all the eligible people and speed up the process in this regard.