HC orders inquiry by CID into government land encroachments at Injapur
The Telangana High Court on Monday directed the State government to order a Crime Investigation Department (CID) inquiry into the ‘involvement of all the officials
The Telangana High Court on Monday directed the State government to order a Crime Investigation Department (CID) inquiry into the ‘involvement of all the officials concerned and private individuals’ over encroachment of government lands in survey no. 126 of Injapur village of Rangareddy district. Justice Nagesh Bheemapaka of the HC, disposing of a writ petition filed by a citizen, instructed the Principal Secretary of Revenue department to initiate action against persons who failed to prevent the encroachments.
The judge specifically recommended action against the Tahsildar and the Grama Palana Officer — the first level government servants. The judge wanted the government to recover the land illegally occupied by private persons and file a report before the bench within four weeks. The judge said in the order that it was apparent that officials (from respondent 4 to 17 in the writ petition), including police and revenue officials from the top to the field level, were ‘shielding the encroachers of valuable government land in survey no. 126 of Injapur village of Abdullapurmet mandal’.
Justice Nagesh Bheemapaka also noted that the officials had tried to dodge the matter on one pretext or the other. The Collector had filed a counter affidavit only after the bench passed an order for appearance of the Principal Secretary for Revenue. ‘The tenor of the submissions made by other officials concerned was a stoic silence and apparently wilful blindness to the large scale encroachments’ which were evident from the counter affidavit filed by the Collector, the judge said in the order.
The judge also noted that it can be condoled that the State machinery was actively aiding the encroachment of government land at the cost of the exchequer.
The BriefWire