Telangana Housing Minister Warns Against Encroachment of Government Lands
Hyderabad: Housing Minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy has warned that strict criminal action will be taken against anyone who tries to encroach on vacant lands under the control of the Telangana Housing Board.
In a statement to the media, the Minister emphasized that the government is implementing strong measures to safeguard government lands. He pointed out that the Housing Board and Deccan Infrastructure Limited (DIL) own lands worth thousands of crores. The previous government had handed over some of these lands to private companies under Joint Venture projects. However, since the current rules do not support those agreements, the government is now reclaiming the unused lands.
To protect these valuable lands, officials from the Housing Board are taking several steps, including geo-tagging vacant plots related to DIL. Additionally, a Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) survey has been conducted to map all vacant government lands in the state.
A GPRS survey has already been completed for 703 acres of vacant land belonging to the Housing Board. The state government has adopted a two-pronged approach—protecting existing lands and reclaiming previously encroached lands.
There are thousands of acres of land under the Housing Board and DIL, with about 500 acres located in Hyderabad, Rangareddy, and Medchal districts. The government is also reclaiming lands given to institutions under Joint Venture agreements, as many of these lands were not used according to the rules.
To prevent encroachment, the Housing Board has decided to construct boundary walls around these lands at a cost of Rs 25 crore. Furthermore, CCTV cameras will be installed, and security guards will be hired to ensure safety.
In the future, the government plans to connect the CCTV cameras to a satellite monitoring system for better surveillance. The Housing Board has officially sanctioned Rs 25 crore for building boundary walls around vacant plots.
