Hyderabad: Housing Minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy warned of criminal action against those who attempt to encroach vacant lands presently under the control of Telangana Housing Board.

In a media statement, the Minister informed that the government was taking strict measures to ensure that government land remains protected. “The Housing Board and DIL (Deccan Infrastructure Limited) have lands worth thousands of crores of rupees. The previous government as part of Joint Venture projects handed over land parcels to private companies. As the existing rules do not support the past agreements, we are taking back the unused lands,” he informed.

According to department officials, the Housing Board is also taking steps including geo-tagging the vacant plots related to DIL towards saving valuable lands. In addition, the DGPS (Differential Global Positioning System) has conducted a survey for all vacant government open lands in the state.

A GPRS survey has been conducted for 703 acres of vacant land belonging to the Housing Board.

The state government is adopting a two-pronged strategy to protect government lands. On the one hand, it is protecting the existing lands, and on the other hand, it is working to reclaim the lands that were previously encroached.

There are thousands of acres of land in the Housing Board and DIL limits. Mainly, up to 500 acres are in the limits of Hyderabad, Rangareddy and Medchal.

The lands allotted to various institutions under joint ventures are being reclaimed by the respective institutions since they were not utilised as per the rules. To protect the lands from encroachments, the Housing Board will construct boundary walls at a cost of about Rs 25 crore. Moreover, strict measures are being taken to protect the lands by installing CCTV cameras and hiring security guards.

In the coming period, it has been proposed to connect the CCTVs with satellite monitoring system and monitor them. The Housing Board has sanctioned Rs 25 crore for the construction of boundary walls of vacant plots.