A youth, who has been identified as Rafi, attempted to kill himself by dousing himself with kerosene at Devarakonda village in Bukkarayasamudram mandal on Monday morning while the Revenue Department was removing temporary huts put up by some people in the land adjacent to the A.P. Residential Junior College.
Police personnel, who were present at the site, chased Mr. Rafi and took him into custody. The youth alleged that Tahsildar Mahboob Basha had promised creating a layout and providing house sites to all the poor who had put up huts there. But the promise never materialised and some new beneficiaries were seen in the latest list of house site pattas to be given on Ugadi, he reportedly told the police demanding action against the MRO.
Missing names in beneficiaries’ list
Three years ago about 400 people had built huts in 12 acres of land in Survey No. 356 with the Communist Party of India (CPI) taking the lead. However, those were forcibly removed on December 27 last year. When the CPI leaders sat on an indefinite fast opposing the removal, residents were promised house site pattas by Ugadi. When they did not find their names in the latest list of beneficiaries, they again pitched huts on the government land 15 days ago.
Officials said the land belonged to the State government and only eligible people would be given house site pattas. Further, they said any encroachments would be cleared and they began removing the huts with the help of JCBs with police personnel on the watch.
CPI leader lobbies
The CPI district secretary D. Jagadeesh also went to the spot when he came to know that the huts were being removed. The CPI leader came to the District Collector’s office to represent the matter at ‘Spandana’ progarmme. However, officials declined to to oblige his plea to spare the huts.
Meanwhile, a police picket has been set up at the site to ensure no untoward incident takes place.
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