AP State fights for Paigah land

Hyderabad: If the state revenue authorities take possession of vacant Paigah land, the state government would become the owner of land worth thousands of crores of rupees on the city’s outskirts.

A high-level committee of senior revenue officials recently identified 1,300 acres of Paigah land lying vacant. The government is engaged in legal battles with private individuals and organisations over the ownership of the land.

Official sources said that after a series of meetings, senior revenue officials decided to set up a special team with administrative and legal experts to pursue cases in different courts, including the Supreme Court. A retired IAS officer, who is a former collector of Hyderabad, is likely to lead the team.

“Paigah lands were gifted by the Nizam in recognition of services rendered by individuals or their families. As per rules, the land should become the property of the state unless the Nizam had re allotted them,” a senior revenue official said.

The identified lands were allotted by the Nizam mostly to the Khurshid Jahi, Vikar-ul-umra and Asman Jahi families. “In some cases, the re-allotment did not take place but the linear descendants of the Paigah families claimed ownership of the land and sold it,” the official said. In other cases, land sharks encroached on the Paigah lands and passed on the possession to other private parties.

Revenue officials also found that the descendants claimed lands as their private possession and got settlement deeds executed among family members, who in turn entered into sale deeds with outsiders.

There has also been connivance of local revenue officials in letting the Paigah lands go out of the government’s control. Records have gone missing and in some cases, they were manipulated.

“We lost cases in the High Court and the Supreme Court as the officials concerned failed to approach the next level of judiciary in the stipulated time,” a source said.

As of now, there are about half a dozen cases in the Supreme Court and about 10 cases in the High Court. The government has decided to give the matter top priority and put up a strong legal fight in the ongoing cases.