Uttam wants zero tolerance for irrigation land encroachments

HYDERABAD

Irrigation Minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy has asked Irrigation Department officials to go for an aggressive crackdown on the encroachments of department lands across the State and told them to act on a war-footing to reclaim the encroached properties and fence them to prevent further illegal occupation.

In a meeting with the officials held here on Thursday, he made it clear that there would be zero tolerance for irrigation land encroachments, especially when the lands are worth hundreds of crores of rupees. He stressed that immediate measures be taken to fence such properties and begin reclaiming them without delay.

As part of the efforts to safeguard the government lands, the minister requested the Advocate General for the appointment of a special GP exclusively for handling the Irrigation Department issues and to deal with complications arising out of the process of land protection.

Highlighting specific cases in Hyderabad, Mr. Uttam Reddy said large portions of land under WALAMTARI (Water and Land Management Training and Research Institute) and TGERL (Telangana Groundwater and Irrigation Research Laboratory) near Gandipet and Rajendranagar were encroached.

Out of 426.30 acres of land in these areas, 131.31 acres was identified as encroached upon. Of this, 81.26 acres falling under the ITIR (Information Technology Investment Region) limits was under litigation now, while the remaining 50.13 acres was directly encroached upon. He stated that 20 cases related to those encroachments were pending in the district court and another two cases were going on in the High Court.

He instructed the officials of the department, HYDRAA, Revenue Department and R&R wings to work in close coordination to recover the high-value lands. He asked the authorities to prepare a complete inventory of all Irrigation Department lands, buildings and quarters across the State on a priority basis.

He asked the officials to explore the possibility of setting up solar power plants on irrigation lands abutting the irrigation canals and lands so that power generated from such projects could be used for major lift irrigation projects.

Special Secretary (Irrigation) Prashant Jeevan Patil, HYDRAA Commissioner A.V. Ranganath, R&R Commissioner Shivakumar Naidu, Engineers-in-Chief Afzal Hussain and Ramesh Babu, WALAMTARI Director General M. Anitha and others participated in the meeting.