Warangal: Elderly couple begs to pay Rs 1 lakh bribe sought by tahsildar

Warangal: A poor, elderly couple got back their land after ages, but not before they were reduced to begging to bribe an official.

Manthu Basaviah and Lakshmi, residents of Azamnagar village in Bhupalpally mandal of Jayashankar Bhupalpally district, were found begging on the streets of Bhupalpally on Friday with a placard on their neck saying the local tehsildar had demanded '1 lakh from them to give them passbooks to their nine-acre plot.

The couple moved from one shop to the other, asking traders to give them as much money as they can so that they can raise the Rs 1 lakh the tehsildar was demanding.

They had been going from pillar to post for several years now to get back their nine-acre plot, grabbed illegally by some people of their village.

Their appeals to officials had fallen on deaf ears but they saw a ray of hope when the state government launched the purification of land records programme. However, tehsildar Mr Satyanarayana allegedly demanded Rs 1 lakh from them to hand over pass books of the land.

It was only after district collector Mr V. Venkateshwarlu came to know about the incident that he directed district revenue officer Mr Venkata Chary to immediately register the land in their name and hand them the passbooks.