Officials turn blind to land grabbings in Quthbullapur

Quthbullapur: With the officials of the Revenue and Irrigation Departments becoming busy with the poll duties of ensuing elections, the encroachers and land grabbers appear to have a gala time. The officials allegedly cite poll duty as a reason to ignore written complaints made on the disappearances of water sources in Suraram mandal. As a consequence, land grabbers became busy in filling the FTL buffer zone of Kattamaisamma tank, adjacent to Narsapur highway, with soil.

Even though the residents have been lodging written complaints at the Revenue department on the efforts of encroachers to grab the tank, the staff is allegedly coming out with incoherent answers to questions posed by the complainants. Devotees use the tank to wash their legs and hands before entering the shrine. Also, to prevent any suicides, the police recently persuaded the GHMC officials to put up a fence around the tank. The sanitation workers did not remove the Durga and Ganesh idols dumped into the tank during the Dasara festival. Residents said that they are unable to bear the stench coming out of the tank. Besides, officials have failed to restore the fence, which the residents had removed to immerse idols during the festival. The residents want officials to reinstall the fence, remove filth from the tank.

Village Revenue Officer (VRO) Balaraju said that the department would take up a survey. Mandal Revenue Officer (MRO) Gowtham Kumar said that the staff was busy with election duties, and hence cannot devote any time to the complaints. However, the MRO promised that he would send officials to the tank and take appropriate action against the encroachers.

BY Pathi Madhav